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Austen Chat, from the Jane Austen Society of North America, brings you entertaining and informative discussions on Jane Austen each month.

A Review by Brenda S. Cox

The idea suddenly came to Mrs. Breckyn Wood that JASNA needed a podcast. Breckyn says,

“My main goal is to attract a whole new generation of JASNA members–younger Jane Austen fans who maybe have read a book or two or seen one of the adaptations, but who didn’t know there was a whole organization dedicated to Austen. I had already been to a few meetings of my local Georgia Region and was blown away by the talent and intelligence of its members, so I knew JASNA would have a huge pool of potential podcast guests from which to draw.”

Being a young lady of ingenuity and determination, she came up with a plan and presented it to the leaders of JASNA, who gave their complete support for Austen Chat. This delightful podcast began in July, 2023, with new episodes released on the first Thursday of each month. As the Austen Chat website says:

“JASNA’s mission is at the heart of Austen Chat—to further the study, appreciation, and understanding of Jane Austen’s works, life, and genius. There is always more to learn and enjoy about Jane, and we invite you to join us for the ride! Each month we talk with scholars, authors, and subject experts on a wide variety of Austen-related topics. We think you’ll have fun and learn something new from every episode—whether you are a lifelong reader, an Austen newbie, a seasoned Austen scholar, or somewhere in between. Tune in each month to enjoy the company of clever, well-informed guests, who have a great deal of conversation!”

I have listened to the first nine episodes (through March 7, 2024) and loved them all. I learned new things from each expert, despite my years of studying Austen.

In each instalment, Breckyn interviews someone in the Austen world about their specialty. Then we have news for the JASNA community about upcoming events and resources. Finally, a Janeite shares one of his or her favorite quotes from Austen, and tells why they love it. So be sure to listen all the way to the end!

Here’s what we’ve gotten to enjoy so far:

Episode 1, Jane Austen & Her House: A Visit with Lizzie Dunford, brings us right to the Jane Austen House in Chawton. We learn about its background, the changes that have been going on, and the treasures on display in this Mecca for Janeites. 

Episode 2, Jane Austen & Goodness: A Visit with Brenda Cox, is my own discussion with Breckyn about how Austen’s faith and the Church of England are reflected in Austen’s novels, including some hidden “faith words” used with religious meanings, women church leaders of Austen’s time, and the differences between rectors, vicars, and curates. 

Episode 3, Jane Austen & Her Wardrobe: A Visit with Hilary Davidson, is a fun discussion of the clothes Jane Austen is known to have worn. I learned that Austen kept up with the latest fashions. Davidson tells us that in general it was easy to find relevant pictures of the types of clothing Austen mentioned in her letters, since they were what was popularly worn in those years. 

Episode 4, Jane Austen & Her Endings: A Visit with Inger Brodey, gives some surprising insights into the endings of Austen’s books. She talks about whether the novels end happily or not, the different kinds of happiness, and how Austen’s endings were unusual for her time. 

Episode 5, Jane Austen & Divorce: A Visit with James Nagle, tells us some suprising facts about ways people got divorced or separated in Austen’s time, including the practice of selling wives, which he says was often to the wife’s lover. 

Episode 6, Jane Austen & Mr. Wickham, A Visit with Adrian Lukis, explores Lukis’s experiences in portraying Wickham in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice movie, then what led him to write his current hit, Being Mr. Wickham, and his thoughts on Lydia and Wickham’s later lives. 

Episode 7, Jane Austen & Dido Belle, A Visit with Renata Dennis, gives us some insights from the head of JASNA’s Diversity Committee about mixed-race Dido Belle, her life, family, and connections with Jane Austen and Sanditon

Episode 8, Jane Austen & Food: A Visit with Julienne Gehrer, discusses Martha Lloyd, the friend who lived with Jane, Cassandra, and Mrs. Austen, and her Commonplace Book and recipes. 

Episode 9, Jane Austen & Her Genius: A Visit with Juliet McMaster, explores some facets of Austen’s brilliance in each of the novels and the Juvenilia. For example, McMaster compares Henry Tilney to Henry Higgins; both taught the heroine a new “language.” And she considers which heroes learned from the heroines, as well as which heroine learned from the hero. Juliet McMaster, a founding member of JASNA and “grande dame of Austen scholarship,” also talks about the early days of JASNA.

This is a great array of topics, all of which I enjoyed. I don’t know what’s coming next, but I’m sure it will be fun!

Episodes begin with a “desert island” question for the interviewee. Either:

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one Austen book, which one would it be?   Or,

If you were stranded on a desert island and could have one penpal from among Austen’s characters, who would it be?

Gentle reader, what is your answer?  And if you want to add your favorite Austen quote, please do!

 

Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.

For years, I’ve loved the Penguin Random House “Puffin in Bloom” editions of Anne of Green GablesHeidiLittle Women, and A Little Princess. I typically purchase these gorgeous books as gifts for my bookish friends and their daughters.

Now, the Puffin in Bloom line has expanded to include three of Jane Austen’s novels as well!

Delectable Classic Covers

The Puffin in Bloom line started with four classic, coming-of-age novels: Anne of Green GablesHeidiLittle Women, and A Little Princess. These hardcover classics feature floral cover illustrations by Anna Bond, the creative director and artistic inspiration behind the global stationery phenomenon Rifle Paper Co. Puffin in Bloom became an instant success and the original foursome continues to fly off the shelves. Classics novels with such beautiful covers do not disappoint!

Each book can be purchased individually or as a boxed set in a beautiful keepsake box. These hardcover books don’t just boast a pretty cover; they look and feel great in your hands. They are just the right size and they read well. I am very particular about the feel of a book in my hands, and these are a joy to hold and read. You can easily slip them into a purse or tote to take with you, too!

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderful by Lewis Carroll, Puffin Books added to the Puffin in Bloom line and released a deluxe, hardcover gift edition of the famous novel. Once again, the talented Anna Bond created the cover illustration, and she also provided full-color illustrations inside. The result is exquisite!

“In this beautiful edition, Alice’s story comes to life for a whole new generation of readers through the colorful, whimsical artwork of Anna Bond, best known as the creative director and artistic inspiration behind the worldwide stationery and gift brand Rifle Paper Co.”

Jane Austen in Bloom

After years of waiting and wondering (and wishing), I was overjoyed when Penguin announced last year that they were planning to expand the Puffin in Bloom line to include other classics as well. Again, they chose Anna Bond to create new cover art with her signature style. But best of all, they chose our Jane’s cherished novels for this new endeavor!!

This first installment (I truly hope there will be more) includes Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. Let’s take a closer look:

Pride and Prejudice

Though her sisters are keen on finding men to marry, Elizabeth Bennet would rather wait for someone she loves – certainly not someone like Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, whom she finds to be smug and judgmental, in contrast to the charming George Wickham. But soon Elizabeth learns that her first impressions may not have been correct, and the quiet, genteel Mr. Darcy might be her true love after all. You can view and purchase HERE.

Sense and Sensibility

Book Description: “Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby, she ignores her sister Elinor‘s warning that her impulsive behavior leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love– and its threatened loss–the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.” You can view and purchase HERE.

Emma

Book Description: “Emma Woodhouse believes herself to be an excellent matchmaker, though she herself does not plan on marrying. But as she meddles in the relationships of others, she causes confusion and misunderstandings throughout the village, and she just may be overlooking a true love of her own.” You can view and purchase HERE.

Anna Bond

Anna Bond is co-founder and CCO of Rifle Paper Co., an international stationery and lifestyle brand with offices in Winter Park, Florida and New York City. Originally from Summit, New Jersey, Anna trained as a graphic designer and made her way to Florida to work as a senior art director at a media company at age 21. After a year of working in print design she left to pursue her passion in illustration. A number of gig posters and freelance work later, she re-discovered her lifelong love of stationery through wedding invitation design and the idea for a stationery collection was born.

Together with her husband Nathan, Anna launched Rifle Paper Co. based out of their apartment in November 2009 and the brand has quickly grown to become of the most notable brands in the industry. Every one of Rifle’s over 900 products are designed by Anna and feature her signature hand-painted illustrations, vibrant color palette, and whimsical tone which has helped propel the brand’s success. Rifle Paper Co. now employs over 200 people and is carried in over 5,000 stores around the world including Anthropologie, MoMA and Barnes & Noble. You can see more of Anna’s work HERE.

Collecting Austen Covers

With covers like these, who can resist “just one more” edition of Austen’s beloved novels? I know many of us have shelves with several pretty editions, plus a favorite, worn-in version that we keep close by for regular reading. Do you have several editions of Austen’s novels? Which books do you collect and how many do you have so far?


RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women DevotionalThe Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Now Available: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

This year I’ve embarked on a new series that focuses on important details that happened in Jane Austen’s novels, letters, and lifetime during each month of the year. Each month, I share with you my findings as I scour her letters, novels, and personal and family history.

Thus far, we’ve covered January and February and learned a lot about the “Season” in London and Bath during the winter months during the Regency Era, as well as the garden the Austen women planned for their Southampton home during their first winter there.

Next, we turn to March in Austen’s novels. While January and February were still quite wintry, March in the south of England is a mix of weather and season. As always happens, this type of research is a “follow your nose”-type study – let’s see where March will take us!

Daffodils at Chawton House in March, @ChawtonHouse.

March in Hampshire

The daffodils like to put on a good show at Jane Austen’s House Museum and Chawton House this time of year. The yellow pops of color are good for the soul and prove to be a hopeful sign that spring is on its way, to those who visit the grounds this time of year.

The daffodils in my yard are glorious right now and it makes my heart happy. I planted 250 bulbs last fall, which meant a lot of work … without anything to show for it at the time. But now that it’s spring, I’m seeing the fruit of my labors!

Daffodils and the like are a wonderful reminder that many worthwhile projects and tasks take work and time before we see fruit. In Austen’s life, before she was published, only her family and close friends enjoyed her work. But later, there was an abundance of fruit from her labors–and it continues to this day!

Jane Austen’s House in March, Photo: @JaneAustensHouse.

March in Jane Austen’s Letters

Several of Austen’s surviving letters were written in March or about March. Here are some interesting highlights:

1814: We have several letters from Jane to Cassandra from March 1814, when Austen visited her brother Henry at his house in Henrietta Street in Covent Garden (you can read more here).

These letters give us a glimpse into Jane’s mind about London, the weather that winter, shopping for herself and the other women in her family, her brother Henry’s thoughts on Mansfield Park, and the plays they attended (several that she liked and others she did not).

Wednesday, 2 March (Henrietta Street):

  • Henry’s thoughts on MP: “We did not begin reading till Bentley Green. Henry’s approbation is hitherto even equal to my wishes. He says it is different from the other two, but does not appear to think it at all inferior. He has only married Mrs. R. (Rushworth). I am afraid he has gone through the most entertaining part. He took to Lady B. (Bertram) and Mrs. N. (Norris) most kindly, and gives great praise to the drawing of the characters. He understands them all, likes Fanny, and, I think, foresees how it will all be.”
  • More on that topic: “Henry is going on with ‘Mansfield Park.’ He admires H. Crawford: I mean properly, as a clever, pleasant man.”
  • Austen’s thoughts on reading The Heroine: “We have drank tea, and I have torn through the third vol. of the ‘Heroine.’ I do not think it falls off. It is a delightful burlesque, particularly on the Radcliffe style.” (The Heroine; Or Adventures of Cherubina is a novel by Eaton Stannard Barrett, 1813).
Henrietta Street today, GuideLondon.org.

Saturday, 5 March (Henrietta Street):

In this letter, Austen provides short accounts from several different days in one week. She provides news each day for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday:

  • The weather seems quite uncomfortable: “Do not be angry with me for beginning another letter to you. I have read the ‘Corsair’ (Byron), mended my petticoat, and have nothing else to do. Getting out is impossible. It is a nasty day for everybody. Edward’s spirits will be wanting sunshine, and here is nothing but thickness and sleet; and though these two rooms are delightfully warm, I fancy it is very cold abroad.”
  • She attends several plays at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London. On Saturday, March 5, 1814, she sees Edmund Kean as Shylock in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and provides her thoughts: “We were quite satisfied with Kean. I cannot imagine better acting, but the part was too short; and, excepting him and Miss Smith, and she did not quite answer my expectation, the parts were ill filled and the play heavy. We were too much tired to stay for the whole of “Illusion” (“Nour-jahad”), which has three acts; there is a great deal of finery and dancing in it, but I think little merit. Elliston was “Nour-jahad,” but it is a solemn sort of part, not at all calculated for his powers. There was nothing of the best Elliston about him. I might not have known him but for his voice.”
  • Later, she continues with this: “I shall like to see Kean again excessively, and to see him with you too. It appeared to me as if there were no fault in him anywhere; and in his scene with “Tubal” there was exquisite acting.”
  • She writes more about Henry’s assessment of Mansfield Park: “Henry has this moment said that he likes my M. P. better and better; he is in the third volume. I believe now he has changed his mind as to foreseeing the end; he said yesterday, at least, that he defied anybody to say whether H. C. [Henry Crawford] would be reformed, or would forget Fanny in a fortnight.”
  • Her thoughts on the increase in the price of tea: “A cold day, but bright and clear. I am afraid your planting can hardly have begun. I am sorry to hear that there has been a rise in tea. I do not mean to pay Twining till later in the day, when we may order a fresh supply.”
Edward Kean as Shylock (Wiki Commons).
Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, sketched when it was newly built, in 1813 (Wiki Commons).

Wednesday, 9 March (Henrietta Street):

  • Jane Austen and her mother and Martha Lloyd all have winter colds: “I have a cold, too, as well as my mother and Martha. Let it be a generous emulation between us which can get rid of it first.” And later: “We are home in such good time that I can finish my letter to-night, which will be better than getting up to do it to-morrow, especially as, on account of my cold, which has been very heavy in my head this evening, I rather think of lying in bed later than usual. I would not but be well enough to go to Hertford St. on any account.”
  • Austen’s dress: “I wear my gauze gown to-day, long sleeves and all. I shall see how they succeed, but as yet I have no reason to suppose long sleeves are allowable. I have lowered the bosom, especially at the corners, and plaited black satin ribbon round the top. Such will be my costume of vine-leaves and paste.” And later: “Mrs. Tilson had long sleeves, too, and she assured me that they are worn in the evening by many. I was glad to hear this.”
  • And Henry’s final thoughts on Mansfield Park: “Henry has finished ‘Mansfield Park,’ and his approbation has not lessened. He found the last half of the last volume extremely interesting.”
Long-sleeved Regency gowns.

1816: Letters to Fanny Knight

Thursday, 13 March (Chawton):

  • Austen’s romantic advice: “To you I shall say, as I have often said before, Do not be in a hurry, the right man will come at last; you will in the course of the next two or three years meet with somebody more generally unexceptionable than anyone you have yet known, who will love you as warmly as possible, and who will so completely attach you that you will feel you never really loved before.”
  • Notes on writing: “I will answer your kind questions more than you expect. “Miss Catherine” (Northanger Abbey) is put upon the shelf for the present, and I do not know that she will ever come out; but I have a something ready for publication (Persuasion), which may, perhaps, appear about a twelvemonth hence. It is short — about the length of ‘Catherine.’ This is for yourself alone. Neither Mr. Salusbury nor Mr. Wildman is to know of it.”
  • Illness: “I am got tolerably well again, quite equal to walking about and enjoying the air, and by sitting down and resting a good while between my walks, I get exercise enough. I have a scheme, however, for accomplishing more, as the weather grows spring-like. I mean to take to riding the donkey; it will be more independent and less troublesome than the use of the carriage, and I shall be able to go about with Aunt Cassandra in her walks to Alton and Wyards.”

Sunday, 23 March (Chawton):

In this letter, Austen speaks of many other topics, but the state of her health seems to be the most important topic in this letter:

  • “Many thanks for your kind care for my health; I certainly have not been well for many weeks, and about a week ago I was very poorly. I have had a good deal of fever at times, and indifferent nights; but I am considerably better now and am recovering my looks a little, which have been bad enough — black and white, and every wrong colour. I must not depend upon being ever very blooming again. Sickness is a dangerous indulgence at my time of life. Thank you for everything you tell me. I do not feel worthy of it by anything that I can say in return, but I assure you my pleasure in your letters is quite as great as ever, and I am interested and amused just as you could wish me.”
  • Evening: “I was languid and dull and very bad company when I wrote the above; I am better now, to my own feelings at least, and wish I may be more agreeable. We are going to have rain, and after that very pleasant genial weather, which will exactly do for me, as my saddle will then be completed, and air and exercise is what I want. Indeed, I shall be very glad when the event at Scarlets is over, the expectation of it keeps us in a worry, your grandmamma especially; she sits brooding over evils which cannot be remedied, and conduct impossible to be understood.”
  • “I took my first ride yesterday, and liked it very much. I went up Mounter’s Lane and round by where the new cottages are to be, and found the exercise and everything very pleasant; and I had the advantage of agreeable companions, as At. Cass. and Edward walked by my side. At. Cass. is such an excellent nurse, so assiduous and unwearied! But you know all that already.”

March in Jane Austen’s Novels

The following are a collection of interesting little tidbits and important moments from Austen’s novels:

Sense and Sensibility

  • “The third day … was so fine, so beautiful a Sunday as to draw many to Kensington Gardens, though it was only the second week in March. Mrs. Jennings and Elinor were of the number; but Marianne, who knew that the Willoughbys were again in town, and had a constant dread of meeting them, chose rather to stay at home, than venture into so public a place.” While walking, Elinor meets Miss Steele (Anne) who says Edward tried to persuade Lucy to give up their engagement, but that Lucy has said she never will.
  • In that same chapter, a letter arrives: “The next morning brought Elinor a letter by the two-penny post from Lucy herself” (from Bartlett’s Building). In this letter, Lucy claims that she tried to persuade Edward to give her up, but “he would not hear of [their] parting.”
  • In the next chapter, we read this: “The Palmers were to remove to Cleveland about the end of March, for the Easter holidays; and Mrs. Jennings, with both her friends, received a very warm invitation from Charlotte to go with them.” Elinor and Marianne, both for different reasons, don’t want to go, but they are persuaded to go because going to Cleveland will mean they are only “a long day’s journey” from Barton and can soon go home.
Promenade in Kensington Gardens, 1804.

Pride and Prejudice

  • March was to take Elizabeth to Hunsford. She had not at first thought very seriously of going thither; but Charlotte, she soon found, was depending on the plan,{190} and she gradually learned to consider it herself with greater pleasure as well as greater certainty. Absence had increased her desire of seeing Charlotte again, and weakened her disgust of Mr. Collins. There was novelty in the scheme; and as, with such a mother and such uncompanionable sisters, home could not be faultless, a little change was not unwelcome for its own sake. The journey would, moreover, give her a peep at Jane; and, in short, as the time drew near, she would have been very sorry for any delay. Everything, however, went on smoothly, and was finally settled according to Charlotte’s first sketch. She was to accompany Sir William and his second daughter. The improvement of spending a night in London was added in time, and the plan became as perfect as plan could be.”

Mansfield Park

  • It’s in March that Mr. Crawford visits Fanny in Portsmouth. First, they go to church: “The Prices were just setting off for church the next day when Mr. Crawford appeared again. He came, not to stop, but to join them; he was asked to go with them to the Garrison chapel, which was exactly what he had intended, and they all walked thither together.”
  • Then, on a walk: “The day was uncommonly lovely. It was really March; but it was April in its mild air, brisk soft wind, and bright sun, occasionally clouded for a minute; and everything looked so beautiful under the influence of such a sky, the effects of the shadows pursuing each other on the ships at Spithead and the island beyond, with the ever-varying hues of the sea, now at high water, dancing in its glee and dashing against the ramparts with so fine a sound, produced altogether such a combination of charms for Fanny, as made her gradually almost careless of the circumstances under which she felt them.”
  • Later, we read these poignant thoughts from Anne on missing spring in the countryside: “It was sad to Fanny to lose all the pleasures of spring. She had not known before what pleasures she had to lose in passing March and April in a town. She had not known before how much the beginnings and progress of vegetation had delighted her. What animation, both of body and mind, she had derived from watching the advance of that season which cannot, in spite of its capriciousness, be unlovely, and seeing its increasing beauties from the earliest flowers in the warmest divisions of her aunt’s garden, to the opening of leaves of her uncle’s plantations, and the glory of his woods. To be losing such pleasures was no trifle; to be losing them, because she was in the midst of closeness and noise, to have confinement, bad air, bad smells, substituted for liberty, freshness, fragrance, and verdure, was infinitely worse: but even these incitements to regret were feeble, compared with what arose from the conviction of being missed by her best friends, and the longing to be useful to those who were wanting her!”
Fanny Price in Portsmouth, Mansfield Park, Folio Society, illustrated by Joan Hassall.

Persuasion

  • According to the Baronetage in Persuasion, a very important man (in his own estimation) was born in March: “ELLIOT OF KELLYNCH HALL: Walter Elliot, born March 1, 1760…”

Northanger Abbey

  • “[Catherine] was struck, however, beyond her expectation, by the grandeur of the abbey, as she saw it for the first time from the lawn. The whole building enclosed a large court; and two sides of the quadrangle, rich in Gothic ornaments, stood forward for admiration. The remainder was shut off by knolls of old trees, or luxuriant plantations, and the steep woody hills rising behind, to give it shelter, were beautiful even in the leafless month of March. Catherine had seen nothing to compare with it; and her feelings of delight were so strong, that without waiting for any better authority, she boldly burst forth in wonder and praise. The general listened with assenting gratitude; and it seemed as if his own estimation of Northanger had waited unfixed till that hour.”
Lismore Castle was used for the 2007 Northanger Abbey film adaptation.

March Dates of Importance

This brings us now to several dates that would have been important to Austen personally and to the Austen family as a whole:

Family News:

23 March 1773: Rev. Austen becomes rector of Deane parish (in addition to Steventon).

27 March 1792: James Austen marries Anne Mathew (they move into the parsonage in Deane).

25 March 1805: Mrs. Austen and her daughters move to 25 Gay Street, Bath.

Historic Dates:

11 March 1793: Civil war erupts in France.

Writing:

March 1811: Austen corrects proofs of Sense and Sensibility.

29 March 1815: Emma finished.

Sorrows:

January-March 1816: Austen begins work on Sanditon.

Spring 1816: Jane Austen begins to feel ill.

18 March 1816: Austen ceases work on Sanditon.

Cassandra’s handwritten copy of Sanditon, JaneAusten’s.House.

March in the Life of Austen

I hope you enjoyed this month’s overview of March in Jane Austen’s World. As always, there is so much more to explore! These are merely highlights and snippets. In some instances, the information I found was a tad contradictory, so I did my best to find the most accurate research available. If you have more information on any topic, feel free to share in the comments. Next up: April!


RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women DevotionalThe Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Now Available: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

Book CoverIn the introduction, author Gillian Dooley reveals her primary reason for writing a book about music in Austen’s life – that of exploring the “rhetorical link between writing and making music, especially given the musicality of her prose” (P 3). This statement reveals the book’s direction. She quotes Robert K. Wallace in Jane Austen and Mozart:

“the classical and neoclassical value of balance, equilibrium, proportion, symmetry, clarity, restraint, wit, and elegance that are typical of Austen’s novels and of Mozart’s piano concertos are typical as well of the music that Austen played on her square piano” – P 3

In pages 4-8, Dooley describes the connection between music and Austen’s writing with examples in her novels, such as Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park. Mind you, we are still in the introduction, which is rich with information.   

The Jane Austen  music manuscripts

Jane Austen's Music Books

Screen shot of an online search

These manuscripts consist of more than 500 separate playable pieces of eighteen albums, which can be found on the Internet Archive. Four of the surviving music books contain manuscripts in Austen’s hand (P 24). Dooley discusses the “160 or so” pieces of music that she meticulously copied by hand (listed in Appendix 2). These most likely represented the memorable music that meant more to her than the other pieces she played and sung as well.

The section that describes the Austen family music collection includes a wider range of musical tastes. When the Austens moved from Steventon to Bath in 1801, they brought along with them a large music collection, although there is no record of its details. Of the eighteen albums that we now know of, it was determined that seven belonged to Austen, and that the remaining 11 albums belonged to the extended family (P 87). Dooley mentions their names, including Eliza née Hancock, who married Henry Austen; Elizabeth Bridges, who married Edward Austen Knight; Louisa and Cassandra Austen Knight, Edward’s youngest daughters, and more.

Movie music vs. Austen’s preferences

I’ve tried over the years to find if the music played in the films based on Austen’s novels represent her actual taste in music, or the music popular in her time. Much to my chagrin, my feeble attempts took time, and I suspect that I still got much of the information wrong. So I embarked on a quick search in Dooley’s book.

I’ve long favored the earthy music and folksy ballads included in Emma 2020, which spoke to my heart. Was my instinct correct about these folk pieces’ connection to Austen’s musical tastes? Dooley provides some important insights. 

One question I had was about Haydn’s and Mozart’s influence in her repertoire. Dooley mentions Haydn:

“In the later decades of the eighteenth century Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) was far better known in London than Mozart. Adjacent to the Mozart duet in Austen’s album are three of Haydn’s English canzonets, in a hand which has been attributed to Elizabeth Austen, née Bridges, Edward’s wife. It is very similar indeed to Austen’s own handwriting … the presence of these songs, even if copied in Elizabeth’s handwriting, in Austen’s manuscript book indicates that she knew them and perhaps sang them.” 

While Austen knew of Haydn, she was fond of the composer Ignaz Pleyel, who was his student, and she had a number of Pleyel’s pieces. As an aside, Dooley mentioned that Mozart’s music played a minor role (P 43) in her collection of music, which surprised me. 

Over the years, Austen’s letters indicated that she shared musical information with friends and family, and that she planned to play country dances for her young relatives, some of whom recalled her singing for the family years later. She did not perform  for company or in public, (PP 70-71). It was said that she had a fine singing voice.

“Most of the English nursery rhymes among the manuscripts are unattributed and the only one which uses the tune familiar today is ‘Dickory, dickory dock’. They appear towards the middle of the book and were probably copied by Austen to sing for the amusement of her young nieces and nephews” (P 64). 

On a personal note, I favor songs, old or modern, that tell a story. Austen, it appears, recorded many such songs, such as Irish and Scottish folk songs. One song mentioned by Dooley was familiar to Austen, but was not recorded in her manuscript. Still, ‘Anna’ is representative of her tastes:

“ ‘Anna: A favorite Scotch song with variations for the piano forte composed by J. L. Dussek’.  The Dussek variations are not to be found in any of her surviving music books. This Scottish folk song, which is more usually titled ‘Shepherds I have lost my love’, was well known at the time, appearing in musical arrangements by several other composers including Joseph Haydn and Ignaz Pleyel. Austen would have been familiar with the tune – she had a copy of an arrangement for [a] piano duet by Thomas Billington in one of her composite volumes of printed music. The song lyrics are not included in the Dussek and Billington versions, but Austen might still have known them.

Shepherds, I have lost my love;

Have you seen my Anna?

Pride of ev’ry shady grove,

Upon the banks of Banna!

I for her my home forsook,

Near yon misty mountain;

Left my flock, my pipe, my crook,

Greenwood shade, and fountain.

Never shall I see them more

Until her returning;

All the joys of life are o’er,

From gladness chang’d to mourning.

Whither is my charmer flown?

Shepherds, tell me whither?

Ah! Woe for me, perhaps she’s gone

For ever and for ever. – P 74

This story melts my heart. I grew up loving folk songs and this one is right up my alley. You can listen to it in the YouTube video below. The fact that the song has some connection to Austen makes it even sweeter for me. 

But what of the waltz? Was it not introduced during Austen’s time? Did she not mention it? Indeed she did, but here’s the rub – Dooley explains that the waltz was controversial, even considered scandalous in some quarters:

“Those whose opposing opinions were recorded were either the jealous lovers of the female partners in a waltz who felt that the dance allowed other men to take liberties, or the authors of advice manuals for young women. The very fact that these opinions were voiced suggests that the waltz was already common and the opposition was therefore not universal at all … it is implied that the ‘irresistible waltz’ played by Mrs Weston in Emma (Volume II, Chapter 8) accompanied a ‘longways country dance set in waltz time, not waltzing in pairs’, which would have been more controversial. There are several waltz tunes from the 1790s in the ‘Juvenile songs and lessons’ album, but it seems likely that they were played to accompany country dances rather than the ‘turning waltz’ that was not widely danced in England until late in Austen’s lifetime.” – P 51

Poignantly, Dooley includes Caroline Austen’s memory of her Aunt Jane’s last four songs when “she had nearly left off singing” (P 229).

The book’s final pages (starting at P 235) includes a bibliography, two appendices, notes, and an index. Appendix Two covers an annotated list of manuscripts in Austen’s hand (PP 238 – 292). Information contained at the end is quite extensive and provides a wealth of information. 

In my estimation, this book is a keeper and will be kept on my shelf of reference materials. It’s an interesting read, but, more importantly, it fills a gap in our knowledge of the music Austen loved, copied,  and sang. Dooley brought to mind how important reading out loud was to Austen and the people of her time, and how important music was in an era when family and local musicians provided wonderful entertainments for their families and communities.

More on the topic

Publisher ‏: ‎ Manchester University Press (March 5, 2024)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 344 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1526170108

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1526170101

Review and Discussion by Brenda S. Cox

“Had Elizabeth’s opinion been all drawn from her own family, she could not have formed a very pleasing opinion of conjugal felicity or domestic comfort. Her father, captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her. Respect, esteem, and confidence had vanished for ever; and all his views of domestic happiness were overthrown.”—Pride and Prejudice, chapter 42

Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s Courtship

Have you ever wondered how on earth intelligent Mr. Bennet came to marry a woman of “weak understanding” and an “illiberal” [uncultured, unrefined] mind? Jane Austen gives us a brief explanation above: he was “captivated by youth and beauty” and an “appearance of good humour.” But what was their courtship like? Emma Wood has imagined that in the play Mr. Bennet’s Bride. First, let’s think a little more about what Austen tells us. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, an ill-assorted pair.
Hugh Thomson, 1894, public domain.

It’s often been pointed out that Mrs. Bennet, silly as she seems, has some worldly wisdom. She has legitimate concerns about providing for herself and her children after Mr. Bennet’s death. It seems that Mr. Bennet had earlier considered this, but now has more or less given up. In chapter 50, when Lydia is to marry Wickham, we read:

“Mr. Bennet had very often wished before this period of his life that, instead of spending his whole income, he had laid by an annual sum for the better provision of his children, and of his wife, if she survived him. He now wished it more than ever. . . .

“When first Mr. Bennet had married, economy was held to be perfectly useless, for, of course, they were to have a son. The son was to join in cutting off the entail, as soon as he should be of age, and the widow and younger children would by that means be provided for. Five daughters successively entered the world, but yet the son was to come; and Mrs. Bennet, for many years after Lydia’s birth, had been certain that he would. This event had at last been despaired of, but it was then too late to be saving. Mrs. Bennet had no turn for economy, and her husband’s love of independence had alone prevented their exceeding their income.

“Five thousand pounds was settled by marriage articles on Mrs. Bennet and the children. But in what proportions it should be divided amongst the latter depended on the will of the parents.”

So Mrs. Bennet did have some fortune, enough to give her about £250 a year (5% of £5,000). Not enough for a gentry family to live on, but not poverty, either. However, divided between five daughters, once their father died and his estate went to Mr. Collins, it was insignificant.

Mrs. Bennet has some valid concerns mixed with her foolishness.
C.E. Brock, 1895, public domain

While her family’s future is uncertain, Mrs. Bennet does not recognize, as her husband does, that saving money would be a help. Her extravagant plans for Lydia’s wedding clothes, and for Lydia and Wickham’s future house, servants, and carriages, show that she has no conception of limiting expenditures according to income. It is her husband whose “love of independence” (desire to avoid debt) has kept their family solvent. Mr. Bennet was at least better than that “foolish, spendthrift baronet,” Sir Walter Elliot of Persuasion, “who had not had principle or sense enough to maintain himself in the situation in which Providence had placed him.”

Mr. Bennet wishes he had saved money to provide for his daughters, but he has not.
H. M. Brock, public domain

Mrs. Bennet, when she was lovely young Miss Gardiner, had enough sense to get the attention of young Mr. Bennet, heir to Longbourn estate, and wheedle him into marrying her.

And that’s where the imagination of Emma Wood, an Australian playwright, took off.

The Play, Mr. Bennet’s Bride

Wood says,

“I began to imagine the details of their courtship. I knew the end, but how did the story begin? The characters flew onto the page. It was such a joy to write. Imagining the earlier lives of the ill-suited couple and peopling the stage with other characters in the previous generation to the novel was an adventure. . . . I felt a deep sense of obligation to honour the characters and style of the novel as I wrote, aware that audiences would expect to see people and situations they recognized in a loving tribute to the novel.”

Mr. Bennet’s Bride is a fun play by Australian playwright Emma Wood. Its US premiere was this month in Cartersville, GA.

Wood’s play, Mr. Bennet’s Bride, has been delighting audiences in Australia and the U.K. since 2014. This February it premiered in the United States, in the small town of Cartersville on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. I was privileged to attend a performance with a group of JASNA friends. We all loved it. The characters were engaging and fun, and the dialogue sparkled. A few little “Easter eggs” were thrown in, Austen quotes that fit well. One started with “It is a truth universally acknowledged . . .”; I won’t give away the others.

The Plot (Includes spoilers)

Here’s how Ms. Wood imagines the story:

We have James Bennet, age 29. His mother died giving birth to him, and his father has been distant all his life. His father’s sister, Aunt Mary, has raised James. His father is pressuring him to marry and produce an heir for Longbourn. His father’s cousin, Benedict Collins, has just produced his own heir, William Collins, and looks on Longbourn as William’s future inheritance.

First we see James hiding behind a sofa, reading a book. When he is discovered, he is forced to make small talk with one of the appropriate young ladies his father has been trying to set him up with. She is no more interested than he is.

Afterwards, his father lays down an ultimatum: Get married within six months, or you’ll be kicked out and have to make your own way in the world. To get James to take him seriously, he puts it into a contract, involving his lawyer (solicitor), Mr. Gardiner.

Jolly Mr. Gardiner and his wife—an earlier incarnation of Mrs. Bennet—take advantage of the situation. In a hilarious scene, Mr. Gardiner manages to introduce James to their beautiful but air-headed daughter Emily. She is in love with an officer but is savvy enough to quickly replace him in her affections with the heir to Longbourn. The story continues with much laughter.

In a serious scene, the elder Mr. Bennet has a touching reconciliation with his son, then allows him to choose his own bride. He chooses Emily. Only at the end does James get an inkling of what he’s gotten himself into.

Some flashed scenes show the new Bennet couple’s future.

The cast and director of Mr. Bennet’s Bride with some visiting Janeites, Feb., 2024.

Gaining Depth and Understanding

Imani Anderson did a beautiful job of directing Mr. Bennet’s Bride for the Pumphouse Players in Cartersville, Georgia. She says,

“One of the reasons why I have fallen in love with Mr. Bennet’s Bride is how James (our Mr. Bennet), Emily (Mrs. Bennet), and their families are written. They bring another level of depth and understanding for the matriarch and patriarch we’ve come to know in the classic tale. It’s clear both families want the best for their children and I think it’s so important that they admit their faults too when need be. . . . I hope that our production . . .  makes you get those warm fuzzy feelings of love and laughter during this Valentine’s season.”

Renata Dennis, Regional Coordinator of JASNA Georgia, and Imani Anderson, director of Mr. Bennet’s Bride

The play did indeed give a deeper understanding of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and how their family came to be what it was.

Gentle readers, how do you imagine Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s courtship?

Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.

Her posts on Jane Austen’s Family Churches will resume in April.

Inquiring readers,

Since 2007, this blog has published a number of posts regarding Steventon, the village where Jane Austen and her parents and siblings lived until the parents and sisters moved to Bath in 1801. Austen was 26 years old. It is said that upon hearing of her parents’ plans to leave Steventon, she fainted. 

Well, girls, it is all settled. We have decided to leave Steventon and to go to Bath.’ To Jane, who had been from home and who had not heard much before about the matter, it was such a shock that she fainted away . . . . Constance Hill, Chapter IX, Leaving Steventon

The probable truth was that she was deeply unhappy to move from a community and friends and family she knew so well, and where her writing skills had flourished. Her creativity blossomed in Steventon, while her life in Bath resulted in a writing desert, where her projects were not completed – until she moved in 1809 to Chawton Cottage

Regardless of her difficulties in Bath, this post is about her life in Steventon, where Austen grew up. Contributors Brenda Cox, Rachel Dodge, and Tony Grant published their outstanding (copyrighted) images in these posts!

Steventon Village

A Drive Through Steventon to St. Nicholas Church

Sadly, my five visits to England focused on London, Bath, Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, Brighton and the South Downs, Warwickshire, Eton, Oxford, Windsor, etc. I missed Austen’s villages of Steventon and Chawton by a smidge. Thank goodness that I could take the road to St. Nicholas Church via Google street view.

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St. Nicholas, Steventon

Jane Austen’s Family Churches: St. Nicholas’, Steventon

This past summer, Brenda Cox, after an extensive trip to England, wrote a series of posts regarding the churches in Austen’s world. Cox’s original photos and historical information are unique to this blog and provide us with a fabulous way to view these beautiful buildings and their history.

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Steventon Rectory:

Steventon Rectory: Jane Austen’s Childhood Home

This was the first post I published in 2007 regarding Steventon Rectory. During that time I was a Jane Austen groupie and knew very little about her life. In the article, I focused on pattens, shoes with which I was not familiar. Good news: After all these years in this old post, the links still work! Looking back, the one negative comment still gives me the shivers, for I had no idea at that time  how to title a post! The reader came looking for substance and got clattering pattens instead!

The image below of the remaining remnant of the Steventon Rectory (a pump) was drawn by Ellen G. Hill, whose sister, Constance wrote a book now in the public domain: Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends by Constance Hill, 1901. See the link at the bottom of this post. Like me in 2007, Ellen and Constance were Austen fans. They visited the sites three quarters of a century after Austen died. In a some instances, they talked to a few aging villagers who recalled those who knew Cassandra Austen in her old age (dod 1845) and related some first-hand minutiae about her.

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Ellen Hill’s sketch of the pump on the site where the rectory stood.

The Garden:

Steventon Rectory Garden: Imagining the Landscape of Jane Austen’s Youth

Rachel Dodge, another outstanding writer for this blog, wrote a post about her visit to Steventon, Chawton, and the Austens’ self-sufficient gardens. Her photographs, as Brenda’s and Tony’s, are outstanding. This blog is blessed to have these contributors!

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The Rectory:

Servants in Jane Austen’s Houses

This post leads to an article that details the life of the Austen family in Steventon Rectory. It refers to Linda Robinson Walker’s 2005 Persuasions-Online article entitled Why Was Jane Austen Sent away to School at Seven: An Empirical Look at a Vexing Question. Ms Walker describes the Austen parents’ incentive to provide sufficiently for themselves and six children, which was not enough on Rev Austen’s two livings. The parents’ hard work to oversee a boy’s boarding school allowed the family to live a life of some comfort. Walker’s information regarding their daily lives and the costs for maintaining the boarding school and hire the servants is quite insightful.

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Last but not least: 

Steventon and Barton Cottage by Tony Grant

Tony Grant, a contributor to this blog since 2010, wrote this post and supplied his photographs to demonstrate the relationship between cottages in Steventon and Barton Cottage in Sense and Sensibility. His articles are always intriguing and informative, for he acted as a guide in Jane Austen tours in his native England for many years.

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More on the topic:

This online, public domain book, published in 1901 and referenced in this blog post, was my initial introduction to a first-hand Jane Austen fan account of her life. Enjoy the read! Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends By Constance Hill

Last month I started a new series, wherein I began exploring important events and details that happened in Jane Austen’s novels, letters, and lifetime during each month of the year. Starting with January in Jane Austen’s World, my aim is to share my monthly finds every month this year, through December. My goal is simple: Glean as much as I can from Austen’s life, letters, and novels about what life was like for Jane Austen during her time and era.

We now turn our attention to February in Jane Austen’s novels. As I examined passages in her novels and letters that mention February, some of the information I found was an extension of what we learned last month: Mainly, that most of the British aristocracy went to the London (and some to Bath) during the winter months for “the season.” They enjoyed balls, parties, and other social gatherings in the bigger cities during the colder months and then moved back to their country homes by summer when the heat and stench of the cities became unendurable. You can read about it here.

Snowdrops at Chawton House in February, Photo: @ChawtonHouse.

February in Hampshire

The snowdrops are in full bloom at Jane Austen’s House Museum and Chawton House this time of year. Chawton House even hosts “Snowdrop Sunday” tours, when guests can come visit the grounds and enjoy the stunning display of snowdrops and other bulbs that are starting to pop out.

I mention the snowdrops because they are everywhere on the grounds of Chawton House in the winter time, and it’s lovely to think that perhaps Jane Austen saw them for herself. These type of bulbs can spread and spread for years.

Chawton House in February, Photo: @ChawtonHouse.

February in Jane Austen’s Letters

Several of Austen’s surviving letters were written in February. In them, she covers many topics, but the excerpts belows are especially intriguing.

8 February 1807 (Castle Square, Southampton):

These snippets are from Austen’s letters when the Austen women lived in Castle Square, Southampton. This first letter mentions the improvements they were making:

  • Garden: “Our garden is putting in order by a man who bears a remarkably good character, has a very fine complexion, and asks something less than the first. The shrubs which border the gravel walk, he says, are only sweetbriar and roses, and the latter of an indifferent sort; we mean to get a few of a better kind, therefore, and at my own particular desire he procures us some syringas. I could not do without a syringa, for the sake of Cowper’s line. We talk also of a laburnum. The border under the terrace wall is clearing away to receive currants and gooseberry bushes, and a spot is found very proper for raspberries.”
  • Interior: “The alterations and improvements within doors, too, advance very properly, and the offices will be made very convenient indeed. Our dressing table is constructing on the spot, out of a large kitchen table belonging to the house, for doing which we have the permission of Mr. Husket, Lord Lansdown’s painter — domestic painter, I should call him, for he lives in the castle. Domestic chaplains have given way to this more necessary office, and I suppose whenever the walls want no touching up he is employed about my lady’s face.”
  • Beds: “The garret beds are made, and ours will be finished to-day. I had hoped it would be finished on Saturday, but neither Mrs. Hall nor Jenny was able to give help enough for that, and I have as yet done very little, and Mary nothing at all. This week we shall do more, and I should like to have all the five beds completed by the end of it. There will then be the window curtains, sofa-cover, and a carpet to be altered.”
  • You must be very cold to-day at Godmersham. We are cold here. I expect a severe March, a wet April, and a sharp May. And with this prophecy I must conclude.

20 February 1807 (Castle Square):

In this letter, we hear a bit more about the weather there in Southampton and at Godmersham, where Cassandra was staying:

  • “We could not pay our visit on Monday; the weather altered just too soon, and we have since had a touch of almost everything in the weather way; two of the severest frosts since the winter began, preceded by rain, hail, and snow. Now we are smiling again.”
  • “You must have had more snow at Godmersham than we had here; on Wednesday morning there was a thin covering of it over the fields and roofs of the houses, but I do not think there was any left the next day. Everybody used to Southampton says that snow never lies more than twenty-four hours near it, and, from what we have observed ourselves, it is very true.”
  • And one of Austen’s hilarious one-liners:”A widower with three children has no right to look higher than his daughter’s governess.”
Southampton High Street, 18th C.

4 February 1813 (Chawton, regarding PP):

In the following letters, we read a bit about Austen’s first beta readers for Pride and Prejudice and her reactions to their commentary:

  • “My dear Cassandra,—Your letter was truly welcome, and I am much obliged to you for all your praise; it came at a right time, for I had had some fits of disgust. Our second evening’s reading to Miss B. had not pleased me so well, but I believe something must be attributed to my mother’s too rapid way of getting on: though she perfectly understands the characters herself, she cannot speak as they ought. Upon the whole, however, I am quite vain enough and well satisfied enough. The work is rather too light and bright and sparkling: it wants shade; it wants to be stretched out here and there with a long chapter of sense, if it could be had; if not, of solemn specious nonsense, about something unconnected with the story,—an essay on writing, a critique on Walter Scott, or the history of Buonaparte, or something that would form a contrast, and bring the reader with increased delight to the playfulness and epigrammatism of the general style…. The greatest blunder in the printing that I have met with is in page 220, v. 3, where two speeches are made into one. There might as well be no suppers at Longbourn; but I suppose it was the remains of Mrs. Bennet’s old Meryton habits.”

Dated soon after:

  • “I am exceedingly pleased that you can say what you do, after having gone through the whole work, and Fanny’s praise is very gratifying. My hopes were tolerably strong of her, but nothing like a certainty. Her liking Darcy and Elizabeth is enough. She might hate all the others, if she would. I have her opinion under her own hand this morning, but your transcript of it, which I read first, was not, and is not, the less acceptable. To me it is of course all praise, but the more exact truth which she sends you is good enough.”

Garden Plans at Castle Square

As most gardeners (myself included) can attest, planning one’s spring garden is a happy prospect in the middle of February. Jane Austen was no different! With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at her descriptions of the plans for their garden from her 8 February 1807 letter to Cassandra:

Our garden is putting in order by a man who bears a remarkably good character, has a very fine complexion, and asks something less than the first. The shrubs which border the gravel walk, he says, are only sweetbriar and roses, and the latter of an indifferent sort; we mean to get a few of a better kind, therefore, and at my own particular desire he procures us some syringas. I could not do without a syringa, for the sake of Cowper’s line. We talk also of a laburnum. The border under the terrace wall is clearing away to receive currants and gooseberry bushes, and a spot is found very proper for raspberries.

Letter to Cassandra, 8 February 1807.

Austen’s Southampton Garden

With these lovely descriptions, we can paint a picture in our minds of what Austen was imagining as she planned the garden:

Sweet Briar

Austen wrote: “The shrubs which border the gravel walk, he says, are only sweetbriar and roses, and the latter of an indifferent sort; we mean to get a few of a better…”

On the blog From the Notebook of a Rosarian, you can read all about Sweet-Briar (or Eglantine Rose). I imagine Austen would have looked forward to seeing these blooms very much! Here is an example:

Regency Roses

Austen wrote: “roses . . . of an indifferent sort; we mean to get a few of a better…”

Perhaps the existing roses either weren’t uniform or weren’t as pretty as the Austen women wanted. Thus, they planned to add a few of “a better” sort. One can imagine a line of beautiful roses along their walkway come summer.

You can read a wonderful article about Regency Roses from Leeds University Library here: Regency Roses. Here is an example:

Pierre-Joseph Redouté, ‘Les Roses’, 1817-1824. Image credit: Leeds University Library.

Syringa (Lilac)

Austen wrote: “I could not do without a syringa, for the sake of Cowper’s line. We talk also of a laburnum.” This is in reference to a line in William Cowper’s poem, “The Winter Walk at Noon” (Book VI, The Task, 1899).

In her article “‘With what intense desire she wants her home’: Cowper’s Influence on Jane Austen,” Jane Darcy provides the following commentary:

The house in Castle Square in Southampton feels more like a home [for Austen]; there is a garden which she energetically starts to plan. She insists on lilacs: ‘I could not do without a Syringa, for the sake of Cowper’s Line’, adding ‘We talk also of a Laburnum’, referring to the lines in ‘The Winter Walk at Noon’,
Book VI of The Task:
… Laburnum rich
In streaming gold; syringa iv’ry pure (149-150)

Jane Darcy, CowperandNewtonMuseum.org
Edward Phillis, “A Georgian Springtime” (Strictly Jane Austen).

Laburnum

Austen wrote: “We talk also of a laburnum.”

Laburnum, a flowering tree, also called golden chain or golden rain, is pictured below. One can imagine how lovely it would look in Austen’s garden in spring.

Laburnum, flowering tree. Wikimedia.

Austen wrote: “The border under the terrace wall is clearing away to receive currants and gooseberry bushes, and a spot is found very proper for raspberries.”

Here, we find an example of something pretty and edible for the garden come summer. Currants, gooseberries, and raspberries were all useful in a variety recipes. You can read more about the history of British food and Gooseberries here.

Gooseberries, Britishfoodhistory.com.

To read more about the trees and shrubs Austen would have recognized, the JASNA Eastern Washington/Northern Idado region provides this fascinating information regarding the “Trees and Shrubs Mentioned in Jane Austen’s Novels, Letters, and Minor Works with Historical Background: “Austen’s Trees and Shrubs A-K” and “Austen’s Trees and Shrubs L-Z.”

February in Jane Austen’s Novels

The following are a collection of interesting little tidbits and important moments from Austen’s novels:

Sense and Sensibility

  • “[Mrs. Palmer] expects to be confined in February,” continued Mrs. Jennings.
  • “[Edward] will be there in February, otherwise London would have no charms for me; I have not spirits for it.” (Lucy Steele)
  • Colonel Brandon: “But last February, almost a twelvemonth back, [my little Eliza] suddenly disappeared.” […] “Good heavens!” cried Elinor, “could it be—could Willoughby!”—
  • “[Mrs. Dashwood] had yet another reason for wishing her children to remain [in London]; a letter from her son-in-law had told her that he and his wife were to be in town before the middle of February, and she judged it right that they should sometimes see their brother.”
  • “Early in February, within a fortnight from the receipt of Willoughby’s letter, Elinor had the painful office of informing her sister that he was married.”

Pride and Prejudice

  • “With no greater events than these in the Longbourn family, and otherwise diversified by little beyond the walks to Meryton, sometimes dirty and sometimes cold, did January and February pass away.”

Mansfield Park

  • “With such thoughts as these, among ten hundred others, Fanny proceeded in her journey safely and cheerfully, and as expeditiously as could rationally be hoped in the dirty month of February. They entered Oxford, but she could take only a hasty glimpse of Edmund’s college as they passed along, and made no stop anywhere till they reached Newbury, where a comfortable meal, uniting dinner and supper, wound up the enjoyments and fatigues of the day.”
“Entrance to Oxford from the London Road.” Ackermann’s Oxford University. Engraved by Frederick Christian Lewis after Frederick Nash (1814).

Emma

  • “In the summer it might have passed; but what can any body’s native air do for them in the months of January, February, and March? Good fires and carriages would be much more to the purpose in most cases of delicate health, and I dare say in her’s. I do not require you to adopt all my suspicions, though you make so noble a profession of doing it, but I honestly tell you what they are.”
  • “Frank was here in February for a fortnight.”
  • “When [Frank] was here before, we made the best of it; but there was a good deal of wet, damp, cheerless weather; there always is in February, you know, and we could not do half that we intended. Now will be the time.
  • “Mr. Woodhouse was resigned. The time of year lightened the evil to him. May was better for every thing than February.”

Persuasion

  • “It was the beginning of February; and Anne, having been a month in Bath, was growing very eager for news from Uppercross and Lyme.”
  • Mary Musgrove sends a long, newsy letter to Anne from Uppercross.

Northanger Abbey

  • “Catherine . . . gave herself up to all the enjoyment of air and exercise of the most invigorating kind, in a fine mild day of February, with the consciousness of safety.”
Bath, England, Regency Era.

February Dates of Importance

This brings us now to several dates that would have been quite important to Austen personally:

Celebrations/Birthdays:

13 February 1765: James Austen (Jane’s brother) born at Deane.

Historic Dates:

1 February 1793: France declares war on England.

4 February 1794: France abolishes slavery in French colonies.

February 1811: George, Prince of Wales, becomes the prince regent of England.

Sorrows:

22 February 1794: Eliza de Feuillide’s husband is executed by guillotine in Paris.

February 1797: Tom Fowle (Cassandra’s fiancé), who was serving as a chaplain, dies in San Domingo of yellow fever.

Writing:

Winter 1810: Sense and Sensibility accepted for publication (Thomas Egerton).

February 1811: Jane Austen starts work on Mansfield Park.

Sense and Sensibility, 1st edition, JaneAusten’s.House.

February in the Life of Austen

I hope you enjoyed this tour of February in Jane Austen’s World as much as I enjoyed researching it and writing it. There is so much more to explore! I followed several intriguing trails and threads in this article, but I’m sure one might find many other avenues to research. Austen’s letters alone are a fount of information and charm. Here’s to what we’ll find in March next month!


RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women DevotionalThe Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Now Available: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

Austen Chat Podcast

Austen Chat Podcast
Brenda Cox, a writer for this blog, steered me to these wonderful podcasts offered by JASNA (Jane Austen Society of North America). Brenda’s discussion is featured in the second podcast on August 2023 entitled Jane Austen & Goodness: A Visit with Brenda Cox. 

On JASNA’s instagram’s site: 

Screen Shot 2024-02-04 at 6.48.15 PM

“This month we visit with the author of “Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England” to discuss clergymen in Austen’s novels, her use of certain words that hold deeper religious meaning than you might think, women who were influential in the church, and the role churches played in the many social reforms of her time.”

A new podcast is featured every first Thursday of each month. This means a new one will appear in early March! Each is approximately 30 to 40 minutes long. They also come with a full transcript for a quick reference later, or for leisurely reading.

The Podcast host is Breckyn Wood, a member JASNA’s Georgia Region and an independent Jane Austen scholar. She is a freelance writer, editor, and children’s book author.

In addition to Brenda’s wonderful talk, previous podcasts include:

2023

July 6: Jane Austen & Her House: A Visit with Lizzie Dunford

Sep 7: Jane Austen & Her Wardrobe: A Visit with Hilary Davidson

Oct 5:  Jane Austen & Her Endings: A Visit with Inger Brodey

Nov 10: Jane Austen & Divorce: A Visit with James Nagle

Dec 7: Jane Austen & Mr. Wickham: A Visit with Adrian Lukis

2024

Jan 4: Jane Austen & Dido Belle: A Visit with Renata Dennis

Feb 1: Jane Austen & Food: A Visit with Julienne Gehrer

I can’t wait to listen to them all!

Tony Grant:  Review of Northanger Abbey, a play by Zoe Cooper

On the 26th January Tony Grant and his wife saw “Northanger Abbey” at The Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond upon Thames. The play, written by Zoe Cooper, was ”inspired” by Jane Austen’s novel. Only three actors enacted all the roles as written by Ms Cooper. 

I’ve seen plays in experimental theaters where actors played several roles after hastily making costume changes. This method of acting leaves me in awe in how the actors inhabit the different characters fully and with perfect recall of their varying dialogues.

Zoe Cooper's Northanger Abbey

The link below leads to the review on his blog of Cooper’s adaptation of Northanger Abbey. In preparation for the performance, Tony read Northanger Abbey again, which gave him fresh insights.

zoe cooper playwright

Playwright Zoe Cooper

Click on this link to enter Tony’s blog to read the review and information about Zoe Cooper.

Hallmark’s Loveuary Experience in February 2024

presents four original movies inspired by the novels of Jane Austen… with a Hallmark twist. 

The first movie aired on February 3rd, but never fear, it will be streamed on Peacock on demand.

Paging Mr Darcy:  

paging mr Darcy

When an overly serious scholar attends an annual Jane Austen conference, she has a sudden change of heart when she strikes a deals with the man who’s playing Mr Darcy. 1 hr 24 m, 2024

Future February Airings on the Hallmark Channel

Love & Jane, Premieres Sat Feb 10 8/7c

An American in Austen, Premieres Sat Feb 17 8/7c

Sense and Sensibility, Premieres Sat Feb 24 8/7c

These movies will also stream on demand on the Peacock App.

A short review of ‘Paging Mr Darcy’

I just viewed “Paging Mr Darcy.” I give it 2½ out of 5 stars, having spent much of my time keeping half an ear and eye on the film while looking up information for my sick dog. The story was pleasant, but would have been better had the script reflected the energy, fun, and seriousness of an actual Austen conference, like the yearly JASNA AGM. The script was not robust enough for my tastes, but then again, there’s a reason why Hallmark movies with their happy endings are popular with a large number of viewers, and why so many of these romance movies are generated each year.

Jane Austen in the News

She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and musicThis is the time when new books are published ahead of the spring and summer seasons. One offering from Manchester University Press particularly intrigued me. I also included in this post  my responses to two books I recently purchased in preparation for a post about the Grand Tour.

She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and Music by Gillian Dooley

In March, Manchester University Press will offer a book that features an in depth look at Jane Austen’s lifelong connection to music. I have the honor of reading an advance proof and will review the book this March. The press sheet states:

“Until recently, our knowledge of Austen’s musical inclinations was  limited to the recollections of relatives who were still in their youth when she passed away. But with the digitisation of music books from her immediate family circle, a treasure trove of evidence has  emerged. Delving into these books, alongside letters and other  familial records, She played and sang unveils a previously unknown facet of Austen’s world. 

[Dooley] not only uncovers the music closely associated with Austen, but also unravels  her musical connections with family and friends, revealing the intricate ties between her fiction and  the melodies she performed. With these revelations, Austen’s musical legacy comes to life, granting  us a deeper understanding of her artistic prowess and the influences that shaped her literary  masterpieces.

Screen Shot 2024-01-28 at 9.52.53 AMThe Grand Tour of Europe

I recently purchased this lavish book, The Grand Tour of Europe, which sits prominently on my coffee table. 

“The Grand Tour, a journey through Europe aimed at culture and leisure, was a common practice between the 17th century and the first quarter of the 19th century. This book revisits the stages in an itinerary that left profound traces in European culture.”

Published by Van Cleef & Arpels and edited by Franco Maria Ricci, the information is divided into the following lushly illustrated sections:

Chapter I: Three essays 

Fops on Holiday, Nicholas Foulkes

Theatres of Antiquity: Art and Artists During the Grand Tour, Fernando Mazzocca

The Grand Tour of Europe, Attilio Brilli

Chapter II: Myths and Views of Italy

Chapter III: Imagination and the Grand Tour – Sculpture

Chapter IV: Imagination and the Grand Tour – Painting

Chapter V: Travellers and Artists

Note: Chapters II – V include anthologies with reactions from 17th – 19th C. travellers to their experiences. 

For a peek inside the book, click on this link: https://www.francomariaricci.com/en/books/grandtour Publisher ‏ : ‎ Franco Maria Ricci Editore (October 29, 2023), 168 pages, ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-1280294180

I wanted to connect this beautiful book to Jane Austen’s life, and found the bridge in the following reproduction of Edward Austen Knight’s memories of his own Grand Tour.

Edward Grand TourJane Austen’s Brother Abroad: The Grand Tour Journals of Edward Austen 

I ordered this book, edited by Jon Spence and first published in 2005, from Jane Austen’s Books. Austen herself, while she mentioned Edward Austen Knight in her surviving letters, provided few personal details about this brother and none about his Grand Tour. Before this book’s publication, we knew very little about his personality or his likes and dislikes, except for a letter from his mother, who compared and contrasted his talents with those of his brother James:

“[He] has a most active mind, a clear head, and a sound judgement, he is quite a man of business. That my dear James was not – Classical Knowledge, Literary Taste and the Power of Elegant Composition possessed in the highest degree; to these Mr Knight makes no pretensions. Both equally good, amiable and sweet-tempered.” – From an introduction in the book by Jon Spence.

In his foreword, Richard Knight, a descendant of Edward Austen Knight and a trustee today of the Chawton House Library writes:

“The publication of Edward’s Grand Tour journals provides another, more personal and intimate memorial to Edward himself. In the journals he speaks to us as he was as a young man: wry, amusing, playful, eager, and interested.”

The latter two books help Austen aficionados understand the scope of these “rites of passage” and educational journeys for the males* of the upper classes and those of the bourgeoisie who had the time and means to leave their home countries for lengthy periods, in some instances for years. Edward’s journal was written from the notes he kept during his travels and the result was meant to be read out loud to his family. 

*Females also embarked on Grand Tours, but not near the numbers of their male counterparts.

by Brenda S. Cox

“I dread the idea of going to Bookham as much as you can do”—Jan. 9, 1799

“My scheme is to take Bookham in my way home for a few days . . . I have a most kind repetition of Mrs. Cooke’s two or three dozen invitations, with the offer of meeting me anywhere” –Nov. 3, 1813

We’ve been looking at some of Jane’s mother’s Leigh family. The Austens also corresponded regularly with the Cooke family in Great Bookham, who are often mentioned in Jane’s letters. Mrs. Cooke was Jane’s mother’s cousin. Her name was the same as Jane’s mother’s: Cassandra Leigh. She was the daughter of Jane’s uncle Theophilus Leigh, master of Balliol College at Oxford.

This cousin’s husband, Rev. Samuel Cooke, was Jane’s godfather. He was the vicar of St. Nicolas’, Great Bookham. He was also rector of Cottisford, Oxon, about 80 miles away, but he and his family lived in Great Bookham.

Godparents play an important role in Anglican families.They promise to pray for the child’s salvation, faith, and obedience, and, at the child’s baptism, they renounce the devil on the child’s behalf. A girl has one godfather and two godmothers.

Memorial plaque in St. Nicolas’ Church, Great Bookham, to Jane Austen’s godfather, Rev. Samuel Cooke, “formerly fellow of Baliol College Oxford, and for fifty-two years the resident and respected vicar of this parish. He died March 29th, 1820, in the eightieth year of his age. Guided by a spirit of piety and benevolence and by an inflexible sense of duty, which sought not the honour that cometh of man, he ran his long course in peace and content; and closed it in an humble trust on that blessed hope, ‘Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'”
The Incumbents (vicars, then rectors) of the Great Bookham church lists Samuel Cooke from 1769 to 1820.

Jane Austen visited the Cookes in Great Bookham, which is between Chawton and London, a number of times. We don’t know why she did not want to go there in 1799, but she visited from May 14 to June 2.

St. Nicolas’ Church, Great Bookham, externally still much as it was when Jane Austen visited there. See this image by JMW Turner.

Great Bookham in Austen’s Novels

Jane made good use of her visit. In 1801, she started writing The Watsons. Its setting in “Stanton” was apparently based on West Humble (now Westhumble), a town near Great Bookham. It is three miles from Dorking, which Austen calls “the town of D. in Surrey.” Betchworth Castle is nearby, so it may be the basis for Osborne Castle in the novel.

After probably visiting several more times, in the summer of 1814, Austen decided to visit the Cookes again. On June 14, she wrote,

“The only Letter to day is from Mrs. Cooke to me. They . . . want me to come to them according to my promise.—And after considering everything, I have resolved on going. . . . In addition to their standing claims on me, they admire Mansfield Park exceedingly. Mr. Cooke says ‘it is the most sensible Novel he ever read’—and the manner in which I treat the Clergy, delights them very much.—Altogether I must go–& I want you [Cassandra] to join me there . . .”

One commentator (Chapmen) says the Cookes may have had Evangelical leanings and appreciated Mansfield Park’s protext against lax views of the duties of the clergy. Evangelical or not, Edmund Bertram of Mansfield Park does present a very high view of the clergy. He says, for example:

“I cannot call that situation [of clergyman] nothing which has the charge of all that is of the first importance to mankind, individually or collectively considered, temporally and eternally, which has the guardianship of religion and morals, and consequently of the manners which result from their influence. No one here can call the office nothing. . . . it will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.”

Jane Austen apparently based Highbury in Emma on Great Bookham or the adjacent town of Leatherhead.

When Jane Austen visited in 1814, she was in the midst of writing Emma. She later told her nephew that Leatherhead, next to Great Bookham, was the model for Highbury. Box Hill, where Emma and her friends picnic, is nearby, and Great Bookham had an Old Crown Inn similar to the one in Highbury. (It was, however, demolished in 1930). There was also a Randalls Park, and other features similar to Highbury.

View from Box Hill, where Emma and her friends picnic in Emma. (Tony Grant points out that this wonderful view is not from the exact spot where they held their picnic. “Frank Churchill, when he gets up to to proclaim to the world, says that Dorking is to his left and Mickleham to his right. That can only mean the picnic took place on the Burford Spur of Box Hill.” You can find photos of other views in his posts linked below.)

Box Hill

Box Hill is still a beautiful spot for picnics, hiking, walking, and cycling. The current rector of Great Bookham, Alan Jenkins, kindly took us to visit there. It includes a cycling trail. In the 2012 Olympics, cyclists made nine laps on this trail as part of their route.

The Parsonage

The Cookes’ parsonage, where Jane Austen stayed, was a large one. (A maid working there was named Elizabeth Bennet, by the way.) They had at least six children, but only three survived to adulthood. Their daughter Mary, who apparently did not marry, was a good friend of Jane’s, mentioned in her letters. Their son Theophilus Leigh Cooke (1778-1846) became a clergyman, a fellow of Magdalen College at Oxford, and holder of three church livings. His brother George Leigh Cooke (1779-1853) combined religion and science. He was a fellow of Corpus Christi College and earned a bachelor of divinity (a graduate degree). He also became a professor of Natural Philosophy (science) at Oxford, a keeper of the archives, and published an edition of Newton’s Principia Mathematica.

Until 1869, Great Bookham had vicars, not rectors. The patron of the parish (a person who changed over the years), took part of the tithes and the rest went to the vicar, along with income from the glebe farmland belonging to the living. It is speculated that some of the excommunications in the Vestry Books were for non-payment of tithes (from 1800: Great Bookham at the Time of Jane Austen).

The parsonage was removed in 1961. For early pictures, see here. The parish now has a rector; the term no longer refers to tithes. His rectory is a modern building.

St. Nicolas’ Church, Great Bookham, History

Jane Austen must have worshiped in this church, where her godfather was the vicar, a number of times on her visits to Great Bookham.

When Austen visited, the church was full of box pews with walls around them. Some were three feet high, some were four feet high. The box pews were replaced by regular pews in 1885.

This wooden gate was added to side of the Great Bookham church in 1914. In Austen’s time, there was an external staircase here to an upper room, where Sunday school was held. Sunday schools, run by Christians of all denominations across England, educated the poor and enabled them to build better lives.
The church tower of St. Nicolas’ Great Bookham dates back to the 1100s. The clock in it was not there when Austen visited. Some years ago, the tower was in danger of falling down. The whole village got behind the project of fixing it, and raised even more than the large sum necessary to save the tower.
The chancel of the Great Bookham church was built in the 1300s, though when Jane Austen saw it, it did not have stained glass.

Other Literary Connections at Great Bookham

Great Bookham has a number of literary connections, some of which Jane Austen would have known about.

Cassandra Cooke, Jane Austen’s mother’s cousin, published her novel, Battleridge: An Historical Tale founded on facts, in 1799, by “a lady of quality.” Austen mentions it in her letters. Available on archive.org in two volumes.
Fanny Burney, one of Jane Austen’s favorite authors, lived here at the Hermitage with her husband, General Alexandre D’Arblay. Their son was baptized in the nearby Great Bookham church in 1795.

Fanny Burney wrote of the Cookes, “the father is worthy, the mother is good, so deserving, so liberal and so infinitely kind, that the world certainly does not abound with people to compare them with. The eldest son is a remarkably pleasing young man. The young seems sulky, as the sister is haughty.” She also wrote of Rev. Cooke, “Our vicar is a very worthy man and goodish—though by no means a marvellously rapid preacher.”

She also wrote to her father, Dr. Burney, “Mr. Cooke tells me he longs for nothing so much as a conversation with you on the subject of Parish Psalm singing—he complains that the Methodists run away with the regular congregation from their superiority in vocal devotion.” The Methodists, led by John and Charles Wesley, had been leading a revival in the church. They attracted people with lively hymns. Country churches were mostly singing psalms, often quite poorly, at this time, though hymns were beginning to be introduced into some churches.

Old and new: St. Nicolas’ pipe organ today. In 1800, the Great Bookham church only had a barrel organ that could play ten tunes. It accompanied their choir of Singers who sang from the West Gallery (balcony) of the church. So their music was probably better than that of many country churches at the time, which often had no musical instruments. This photo shows a memorial tomb/statue that Austen would have seen. The pulpit would have been higher, however, to be seen over the box pews. The blue bulletin board is modern, showing charities the church supports.

Playwright and politician Richard Sheridan (1751-1816), who wrote The Rivals and School for Scandal, owned several manors in the area around Great Bookham.

Later, teenaged C. S. Lewis lived in Great Bookham from 1914-1917, being educated by a private tutor, William T. Kirkpatrick.

St. Nicolas’ Church, Great Bookham, Today

St. Nicolas’ is a very active church, larger than the others we have “visited” so far. I was told the parish includes eleven to twelve thousand people. The electoral role of St. Nicolas’ lists about 250 members, and around 140 attend on Sundays. Three other ministers and five staff members assist the rector in serving the church. The church holds services every Sunday, Communion on Thursdays and Sundays, and several weekly prayer meetings. Members also meet in housegroups.

This board welcomes people to St. Nicolas’, Great Bookham, and advertises concerts and other community events held at the church.

The area also includes Baptist, Catholic, and United Reformed churches, and St. Nicolas’ cooperates with them on projects like Alpha Courses, designed to address people’s questions about Christian faith.

A few years ago, the church removed the Victorian pews and substituted chairs. This gives them the flexibility to hold various kinds of services and to host community events.

Religious education and daily worship are required to be offered in British government schools (student participation is optional). The rector, Alan Jenkins, provides some of this in local schools, briefly sharing a Bible story, prayer, and sometimes a song. School groups also come into the church for harvest or Easter services, with programs organized by the teachers.

Prayer stations around the church offer ideas for personal prayer.
An interesting aside for you: St. Nicolas’ Great Bookham has many lovely stained glass windows today, though there were none when Jane Austen visited. This one honors St. George, patron saint of England; St. Michael, who in the Bible defeats the great dragon, the devil; and St. Martin using his sword to cut his cloak in half in order to give half to a beggar in winter. These windows, with military images, are dedicated to Guy Cuthbert Dawnay, a soldier and Conservative politician. A large cross dedicated to Dawnay in the churchyard says he “was killed by a buffalo while on a hunting expedition in Masailand, E. Africa,” Feb. 28, 1889. Both have verses from Isaiah 60:19-20 about the Lord being his everlasting light.
On the day we visited the Great Bookham church, the central kneeling cushion at the altar commemorated Jane Austen’s connection with the church.

I hope you are enjoying learning about Jane Austen’s churches along with me. There is so much history at these old churches, as well as continuing community life and worship today.

All photos copyright Brenda S. Cox, 2024.

Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.

Sources

1800: Great Bookham at the Time of Jane Austen, Fanny Burney, and R. B. Sheridan, published by the Parochial Council of St. Nicolas Great Bookham (booklet available at the church, funded by JASNA)

The Original of Highbury,” Jane Austen Society Collected Reports II:60,

Church of St. Nicolas, official list entry

St. Nicolas, Great Bookham website and The History of the Building

Special thanks to Tony Grant for telling me that Box Hill was near Great Bookham, and to Rev. Alan Jenkins for taking us up to Box Hill!

Further Exploration

Jane Austen and Great Bookham, by Tony Grant

Box Hill in Jane Austen’s Emma, by Tony Grant (includes the geology, history, and literary connections of Box Hill)

Jane Austen’s Surrey, by Tony Grant (includes views Emma might have seen on her picnic)

Emma Woodhouse’s Surrey, by Tony Grant (includes views Emma might have seen on her picnic)

Other Churches Connected to Jane Austen

Steventon

Chawton

Hamstall Ridware and Austen’s cousin Edward Cooper

Adlestrop Church and the Leigh Family

Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel

Today marks the start of a new series, in which I highlight several important events and details that happened in Jane Austen’s novels, letters, and lifetime during each month of the year.

We’ll kick off Jane Austen January (aka “Jane-uary”) by examining passages and situations in each of her novels that occur in January. While some of the novels have no mention of January, others do—with interesting results! Next, we’ll note where Austen was and what she was doing in January by checking her letters for January dates and details. Finally, we’ll highlight events and anniversaries that occurred in January that directed affected Jane Austen or her family.

All of this can help us better understand Austen’s life and times as we look at specific dates, events, and details in the context of months and seasons.

Snowdrops at Chawton House in January, courtesy of Chawton House.

January in Regency Times

One of the highlights of January for Jane Austen’s family was surely Twelfth Night (also known as Epiphany), which falls on January 5th.

Maria Grace, in her article “Celebrating Twelfth Night–Jane in January and You,” explains its religious importance: “Epiphany or Twelfth Night … was the exciting climax of the Christmastide season… It was a feast day to mark the coming of the Magi bearing gifts to the Christ child, and as such was the traditional day to exchange gifts.”

She also explains the social side of Twelfth Night: “In Jane Austen’s day, the party of the year would generally be held on Twelfth Night.” (Austen Variations)

During the Regency Era, people hosted parties and balls to celebrate Christmas and especially the last day of the Christmas season. The entertainment often involved guests playing assigned parts for the evening, dressing up in costumes, eating “Twelfth Cake,” and eating and drinking.

Rowlandson, “Twelfth Night Characters,” Creative Commons, 1811.

In a letter to Cassandra on December 27, 1808, Austen writes about an upcoming ball between Christmas and “Twelfth-day” at Manydown:

I was happy to hear, chiefly for Anna’s sake, that a ball at Manydown was once more in agitation; it is called a child’s ball, and given by Mrs. Heathcote to Wm. Such was its beginning at least, but it will probably swell into something more. Edward was invited during his stay at Manydown, and it is to take place between this and Twelfth-day. Mrs. Hulbert has taken Anna a pair of white shoes on the occasion.

Austen’s Letters (December 27, 1808)

Later, on January 10, 1809, she writes, “The Manydown ball was a smaller thing than I expected, but it seems to have made Anna very happy. At her age it would not have done for me.”

Manydown Great House, Wikipedia Commons, 1833.

January Travel in Jane Austen’s Novels

In Austen’s novels, January is primarily mentioned in the context of parties and travel. Anne Elliot goes to Bath for January and February, Miss Crawford is invited for “a long visit” to see her friend in London in January, Mrs. Jennings goes to her own house in London in January, and Mr. Bingley, Mr. Darcy, and Bingley’s sisters all go to London (when Bingley leaves Netherfield) and stay for the winter.

In Sense and Sensibility, Lucy Steele and her sister, Anne, go to “town” (London) in January to stay with relatives (and subsequently move from house to house throughout the season as socially advantageous opportunities become available):

I had quite depended upon meeting you there. Anne and me are to go the latter end of January to some relations who have been wanting us to visit them these several years! But I only go for the sake of seeing Edward. He will be there in February, otherwise London would have no charms for me; I have not spirits for it.

Sense and Sensibility

Mrs. Jennings, who “resided every winter in a house in one of the streets near Portman Square,” invites Elinor and Marianne to come with her to London in January when her thoughts begin to turn toward home after Christmas.

Portman Square, London, Wikipedia Commons, 1813.

The London Season

So why do so many of Austen’s characters travel to London in January? Wouldn’t the weather make travel difficult? Wouldn’t they prefer to stay home (and inside) where it’s cozy?

These are fair questions, but after Christmas, a large portion of the genteel class moved “to town” during the winter months for the London Season, which coincided with England’s political schedule, for entertainment and socializing. The Season had previously started in the fall, meaning most people went to London before the bad weather set in, but with the improvement of roads and travel during Austen’s day, the season slowly shifted later.

Here’s an explanation of the London Season from Jane Austen’s House Museum:

The London season coincided with the sitting of Parliament, beginning at some point after Christmas when fashionable families would move into their London houses. The men would attend Parliament, whilst the women shopped, visited, and found husbands for themselves or their daughters. It lasted until early summer, when the ‘beau monde’ would return to their country estates, escaping the city’s stifling heat and pungent smells.

The season was a whirlwind of court balls and concerts, private balls and dances, parties and sporting events. On a typical day, ladies would rise early to go riding in Hyde Park, before returning home to breakfast and spending the day shopping, dealing with correspondence and paying calls.

The Season, Jane Austen’s House Museum

Most villages had assemblies and balls during the winter, but all of the most important social occasions happened “in town.” In Pride and Prejudice, we’re told that the Bennet sisters have little to do “beyond the walks to Meryton” in January and February, when conditions are “sometimes dirty and sometimes cold” (Ch. 27). It makes sense that many young women longed to go to town in the winter, at the height of the London Season and “marriage market,” when the majority of the parties, balls, and social events were held.

Rowlandson, Drawing Room at St. James’s Palace in London, Wikimedia Commons, 1810.

January in Jane Austen’s Letters

January often brings rain, cold weather, and even snow to the various locations where Austen lived and traveled. Austen kept her spirits up, but January in England, especially in homes without central heating or today’s insulation, could not have been entirely comfortable. Balls and assemblies, visits and travel, kept Austen busy and content during the winter months.

Austen’s entries follow below and give us a glimpse into the miserable weather conditions during one particularly snowy and wet January:

17 January 1809 (Castle Square):
“Yes, we have got another fall of snow, and are very dreadful; everything seems to turn to snow this winter.”

24 January 1809 (Castle Square):
“This day three weeks you are to be in London, and I wish you better weather; not but that you may have worse, for we have now nothing but ceaseless snow or rain and insufferable dirt to complain of; no tempestuous winds nor severity of cold. Since I wrote last we have had something of each, but it is not genteel to rip up old grievances.”

In the same letter, Austen describes her writing:
“I am gratified by her having pleasure in what I write, but I wish the knowledge of my being exposed to her discerning criticism may not hurt my style, by inducing too great a solicitude. I begin already to weigh my words and sentences more than I did, and am looking about for a sentiment, an illustration, or a metaphor in every corner of the room. Could my ideas flow as fast as the rain in the store-closet, it would be charming.”

On the topic of the store-closet, she writes this:
“We have been in two or three dreadful states within the last week, from the melting of the snow, etc., and the contest between us and the closet has now ended in our defeat. I have been obliged to move almost everything out of it, and leave it to splash itself as it likes.”

30 January 1809 (Castle Square):
“Here is such a wet day as never was seen. I wish the poor little girls had better weather for their journey; they must amuse themselves with watching the raindrops down the windows. Sackree, I suppose, feels quite broken-hearted. I cannot have done with the weather without observing how delightfully mild it is; I am sure Fanny must enjoy it with us. Yesterday was a very blowing day; we got to church, however, which we had not been able to do for two Sundays before.”

And a final update on the flooded closet:
“The store-closet, I hope, will never do so again, for much of the evil is proved to have proceeded from the gutter being choked up, and we have had it cleared. We had reason to rejoice in the child’s absence at the time of the thaw, for the nursery was not habitable. We hear of similar disasters from almost everybody.”

If you’ve ever dealt with water damage or burst pipes due to cold weather, you know how awful and destructive it can be. Austen makes light, but one can imagine it caused quite a bit of damage.

Snow at Jane Austen’s House Museum, January 2021.

January in Jane Austen’s Lifetime

And finally, let us turn our attention to some of the most important dates and events that happened (or were celebrated) during the first month of the year in Jane Austen’s lifetime. In December 1800, Reverend Austen decided to retire and remove his family to Bath. Austen’s letters in January 1801 prove an interesting read as she and the Austen family prepare to move later in the year:

3 January 1801 (Steventon):
Austen writes that her mother wants to keep two maids and quips about their plans to have “a steady cook and a young giddy housemaid, with a sedate, middle-aged man, who is to undertake the double office of husband to the former and sweetheart to the latter.”

Austen discusses three parts of Bath where they might live:
“Westgate Buildings, Charles Street, and some of the short streets leading from Laura Place or Pulteney Street.” She writes extensively about each neighborhood and several others, giving her opinion and hopes about each. She details which pictures, furniture, and beds they are choosing to keep or leave behind and asks Cassandra’s advice. And she shares plans for the family to travel to Bath a few weeks from then.

Austen shares own thoughts on their move to Bath:
“I get more and more reconciled to the idea of our removal. We have lived long enough in this neighborhood: the Basingstoke balls are certainly on the decline, there is something interesting in the bustle of going away, and the prospect of spending future summers by the sea or in Wales is very delightful. For a time we shall now possess many of the advantages which I have often thought of with envy in the wives of sailors or soldiers. It must not be generally known, however, that I am not sacrificing a great deal in quitting the country, or I can expect to inspire no tenderness, no interest, in those we leave behind…”

The letter is full of useful information and well-worth a read. You can access it HERE.

14 January 1801 (Steventon):
Austen speaks of the many visitors they’ve received in response to the news that Rev. Austen is retiring and the family is moving to Bath. She says, “Hardly a day passes in which we do not have some visitor or other: yesterday came Mrs. Bramstone, who is very sorry that she is to lose us, and afterwards Mr. Holder, who was shut up for an hour with my father and James in a most awful manner.”

4 Sydney Place, Bath.
Plaque outside 4 Sydney Place, Bath.

January Dates of Importance

This brings us now to several dates that would have been quite important to Austen personally:

Celebrations/Birthdays:

9 January 1773: Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra Elizabeth Austen, born.

23 January 1793: Edward Austen’s first child, Fanny, born.

Goodbyes/Sorrows:

January 1796: Tom Lefroy leaves Ashe for London (and never returns) and Tom Fowle (Cassandra’s fiancé) sets sail for the Indies, where he later dies.

21 January 1805: Rev. George Austen (Jane’s father) dies suddenly in Bath.

Writing:

28 January 1813: Pride and Prejudice was published, by Thomas Egerton (Whitehall, London).

21 January 1814: Austen begins writing Emma.

The Joys of Sleuthing

I hope you’ve enjoyed this first installment of our month-by-month exploration of Jane Austen’s world. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was so much more to research and explore about the month of January than I anticipated. I enjoyed sleuthing around, following my nose, and discovering what I could uncover–just with the word “January.” If I’ve missed anything major related to January, or if you have ideas about what I might pursue for February, please share it in the comments. It takes a village with this type of research!


RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women DevotionalThe Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Now Available: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

After much celebration, Christmas and New Year’s festivities are over. I dare not weigh myself until I’ve dieted for a week. Wine and spirits are banned for the time being. Decorations will eventually be stashed away as life slowly returns to normal. 

We still celebrate these holidays in similar ways to those held in the past. Lesley-Anne McCleod wrote about the similarity of Christmas and New Year’s celebrations in a 2016 post entitled A Regency New Year–“Begin as you mean to go on:

“New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in the Regency era in England was celebrated, it seems, very much like Christmas with: Parties and celebrations … particularly among the Royals … gifts … and acts of charity…”

hurst dancing book cover ebay

Book Cover of Mrs Hurst Dancing

Dancing:

Today as in Austen’s time we still party and dance the night away. In the book cover image above, Diana Sperling painted a private dance party at home, with the rug rolled up and the furniture pulled aside. One of the ladies plays the pianoforte for the dancers. Some – an older woman/chaperone (?), a young girl wearing a cap, and a young woman without a cap – sit on the sidelines.

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Pappy and Mum play chess

While the younger crowd danced exuberantly, one imagines that their elders enjoyed a quieter way to spend the time – near a fire, perhaps, while playing a game, much like Mr Woodhouse and Emma or Mr Knightley might have done.

Dining and Feasting:

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Dynes Hall, Family at Dinner

Dinners with  guests and family would be intimate, as in this image (see the bird cage at right?), or enormous, as with the Royals and the very wealthy, like Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy. 

Please Note: images might be copyrighted. If enlarged, these will lose clarity.

Transportation:

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Returning from a dinner party at night, 1816

Visiting neighbors or friends in nearby villages at night presented logistics. Roads were unlit and often deeply rutted and muddy after heavy rains or melting snow. The preferred days for traveling coincided with the full moon, which at times was obscured by clouds. Lanterns helped to pave the way, yet the going was still rough, as this Sperling image shows.

The threat of snow was enough to put a spoke in plans. In Austen’s Emma, Mr Woodhouse, having been enticed from his cozy chair in front of his fire to attend the Westons’ dinner, hastened before food service hardly began to hie it back home before the snow accumulated. 

Charity: 

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Detail, Group portrait at a drawing room table, Maria Spilsbury

Charity played an important part in Regency England. Ladies from the middle classes and upward gave out baskets containing contents distributed to the poor – including knitted and sewn items, and food. When Mrs Austen, Jane’s mother, received visitors in the small parlor in Steventon Rectory, she would work on her latest project. 

A contemporary news item mention the following:

“Tuesday being New Year’s Day, eight girls, who are clothed and put to school by Lady Mill, dined at Mattisfont-house, the seat of Sir Charles Mill, agreeable to the usual custom. – Hampshire Chronicle, Monday 7, January 1805,” McLeod, A Regency New Year

Austen frequently mentioned charitable work in her novels and letters. She was:

… concerned with the practical needs of her neighbours: ‘Dame Tilbury’s daughter has lain-in – Shall I give her any of your Baby Cloathes?’ she asks Cassandra, October 1798.” 

and

On Christmas Day she wrote: “Of my charities to the poor since I came home you shall have a faithful account. – I have given a p.r of Worsted Stockgs to Mary Hutchins, Dame Kew, Mary Steevens, & Dame Staples; a shift to Hannah Staples, & a shawl to Betty Dawkins; amounting in all to about half a guinea. – Jane Austen’s Microcosm

Twelfth Night on January 5th marks the end of the Christian holiday season. This and many other Western holiday traditions, many harking back to the 5th century, have stood the test of time. Each generation and country have placed their own mark on how these customs are celebrated.

More on the topic:

“I had expected to find everything about the place very fine and all that, but I had no idea of its being so beautiful.” –Mrs. Cassandra Leigh Austen, Aug. 13, 1806, on a visit to Stoneleigh Abbey with her daughters Jane and Cassandra

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! As my gift to you, let’s take a trip to Stoneleigh Abbey together.

Jane Austen visited Stoneleigh Abbey in 1806. She and her mother and sister were visiting their cousin, Rev. Thomas Leigh, in Adlestrop when his distant cousin, the Honorable Mary Leigh, died. Rev. Thomas inherited the wealthy estate. He took his poorer relations, the Austens, with him to take possession, as a treat for them. They enjoyed it very much, as Mrs. Austen wrote in a letter.  She said the house was so large that they needed signposts to find their way, and that it was not only very “fine,” but more beautiful than she had imagined. Catherine Morland, similarly, when she saw Northanger Abbey, “was struck . . . beyond her expectation, by the grandeur of the abbey.”

Based on income, Stoneleigh Abbey was an even grander place than Pemberley or Sotherton (the Rushworth estate in Mansfield Park) would have been. Austen tells us that Darcy’s income was £10,000 a year and Mr. Rushworth’s was £12,000 a year. But the income of the Leighs of Stoneleigh Abbey, in Jane Austen’s time, was even higher, at £17,000 a year, which Victoria Huxley says was “perhaps the annual equivalent of a million pounds in today’s values” (p. 9). (We were told when touring Chatsworth that the income there in Austen’s time was about £30,000, three times Darcy’s income; I haven’t found confirmation of that number anywhere, though.)

Today, ideally you need a car or a tour bus to get you to Stoneleigh Abbey. It is about an hour’s drive north of Oxford or about 40 minutes southeast from Birmingham. If you want to take public transport, it looks like you’ll have a half-hour’s walk at the end of your journey.

I went with the JASNA Summer Tour. We saw the Adlestrop church the same day; it’s only about an hour’s drive away.

Stoneleigh Abbey, like Austen’s fictional Northanger Abbey, is a mix of older monastic buildings and newer buildings. (Newer in Austen’s time, at least.) Let’s take a trip through it, with some quotes from Austen’s novels.

The red sandstone gatehouse, where you buy entry tickets, is from the 14th century, a remnant of the original Cistercian monastery. At this gatehouse, built in 1346 by Abbot Robert de Hoeckle, the poor received alms and travelers found hospitality.

So low did the building stand, that she found herself passing through the great gates of the lodge into the very grounds of Northanger, without having discerned even an antique chimney. . . . To pass between lodges of a modern appearance, to find herself with such ease in the very precincts of the abbey, and driven so rapidly along a smooth, level road of fine gravel, without obstacle, alarm, or solemnity of any kind, struck her as odd and inconsistent.–Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey

Now we are coming to the lodge-gates; but we have nearly a mile through the park still.–Maria Bertram, Mansfield Park

The tour did not take us into this north wing. But you can still see arches on the walls, from the original monastery church. They are now bricked over. A cloister and medieval stained glass windows remain in the older buildings.
Another building from the old monastery. Stoneleigh Abbey was a small Cistercian monastery from 1155 until Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1536. The Leigh family bought it in 1561. Catherine Morland was disappointed not to stay in such a building at Northanger Abbey.

[Catherine] was hardly more assured than before, of Northanger Abbey having been a richly endowed convent at the time of the Reformation, of its having fallen into the hands of an ancestor of the Tilneys on its dissolution–Northanger Abbey

The baroque West Wing is the most impressive building, built in the 1720s by Edward, the third baron Leigh. He married a rich heiress. After his Grand Tour on the continent, he was inspired to create his own Italian-style palace. Mrs. Austen wrote that there are 45 windows in the front.

She was struck, however, beyond her expectation, by the grandeur of the abbey, as she saw it for the first time from the lawn.–Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey

Even Fanny had something to say in admiration. . . . Her eye was eagerly taking in everything within her reach; . . . being at some pains to get a view of the house, and observing that “it was a sort of building which she could not look at but with respect”–Mansfield Park

Architect Francis Smith designed the Stoneleigh Abbey West Wing, which cost £3,300. The older abbey buildings became servants’ quarters.
A flight of stairs leads up to the main entry to Stoneleigh Abbey, West wing

Miss Bertram could now speak with decided information of what she had known nothing about when Mr. Rushworth had asked her opinion; and her spirits were in as happy a flutter as vanity and pride could furnish, when they drove up to the spacious stone steps before the principal entrance.–Mansfield Park

One end of the impressive “saloon” (salon, entry room) of Stoneleigh Abbey. Plaster decorations show myths of the Greek hero Hercules. Edward, the fifth Lord Leigh, decorated this room in the 1760s while doing vast “improvements” to his manor.
Ceiling plasterwork in the Stoneleigh Abbey saloon showing Hercules joining the gods. Ironically, Hercules suffered from bouts of madness, as did Edward Leigh himself.

An abbey! Yes, it was delightful to be really in an abbey! But she doubted, as she looked round the room, whether anything within her observation would have given her the consciousness. The furniture was in all the profusion and elegance of modern taste.–Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey

The whole party rose accordingly, and under Mrs. Rushworth’s guidance were shewn through a number of rooms, all lofty, and many large, and amply furnished in the taste of fifty years back, with shining floors, solid mahogany, rich damask, marble, gilding, and carving, each handsome in its way.–Mansfield Park

The main staircase of Stoneleigh Abbey, one of three staircases Jane Austen’s mother mentions.

They returned to the hall, that the chief staircase might be ascended, and the beauty of its wood, and ornaments of rich carving might be pointed out.–Northanger Abbey

The lower part of the house had been now entirely shewn, and Mrs. Rushworth, never weary in the cause, would have proceeded towards the principal staircase, and taken them through all the rooms above, if her son had not interposed with a doubt of there being time enough.–Mansfield Park

The drawing room of Stoneleigh Abbey. After dinner, the ladies would “withdraw” to the “withdrawing room,” later called the drawing room. The gentlemen would join them after a time.

The general leads Catherine “into a room magnificent both in size and furniture—the real drawing-room, used only with company of consequence. It was very noble—very grand—very charming!—was all that Catherine had to say, for her indiscriminating eye scarcely discerned the colour of the satin; and all minuteness of praise, all praise that had much meaning, was supplied by the general: the costliness or elegance of any room’s fitting-up could be nothing to her; she cared for no furniture of a more modern date than the fifteenth century.”–Northanger Abbey

The drawing room clock, from 1786, plays carillon music on the hour. Stoneleigh Abbey

“Till midnight, she supposed it would be in vain to watch; but then, when the clock had struck twelve, and all was quiet, she would, if not quite appalled by darkness, steal out and look once more. The clock struck twelve—and Catherine had been half an hour asleep.”–Northanger Abbey

Stoneleigh Abbey card room fireplace, with plates of “the prettiest English china,” hand painted by ladies of the family.

The fireplace, where she had expected the ample width and ponderous carving of former times, was contracted to a Rumford, with slabs of plain though handsome marble, and ornaments over it of the prettiest English china.–Northanger Abbey

A Rumford was an invention that made fireplaces more efficient. They are still used today.

Stoneleigh Abbey card room, set up for a game of cards.

Mr. Elton had retreated into the card-room, looking (Emma trusted) very foolish.–Emma

Portraits in the Card Room. All the rooms we saw were lined with family portraits.

Of pictures there were abundance, and some few good, but the larger part were family portraits, no longer anything to anybody but Mrs. Rushworth–Mansfield Park

Edward, fifth Lord Leigh, bequeathed most of his extensive library to his alma mater, Oriel College at Oxford. These included “outstanding works on architecture and music, his scientific instruments, maps and prints.” (Jane Austen & Adlestrop, 22).
The library of Stoneleigh Abbey was replenished by later heirs.

Marianne, who had the knack of finding her way in every house to the library, however it might be avoided by the family in general, soon procured herself a book.–Sense and Sensibility

Ready to play chess in the library, Stoneleigh Abbey

“What a delightful library you have at Pemberley, Mr. Darcy!”

“It ought to be good,” he replied, “it has been the work of many generations.”

“And then you have added so much to it yourself, you are always buying books.”

“I cannot comprehend the neglect of a family library in such days as these.”–Miss Bingley and Mr. Darcy, Pride and Prejudice

Stoneleigh Abbey library

After tea, Mr. Bennet retired to the library, as was his custom–Pride and Prejudice

Ladies’ dressing table, Stoneleigh Abbey

“My mother is tolerably well, I trust; though her spirits are greatly shaken. She is up stairs and will have great satisfaction in seeing you all. She does not yet leave her dressing-room.”–Jane Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

The chapel at Stoneleigh Abbey is considered to be the model for the chapel at Sotherton in Mansfield Park. Crimson cushions appear over the balcony ledge, as in Mansfield Park. Rev. Thomas Leigh read prayers (led a worship service) in the chapel twice a day, with morning prayers at 9 A.M.

Fanny’s imagination had prepared her for something grander than a mere spacious, oblong room, fitted up for the purpose of devotion: with nothing more striking or more solemn than the profusion of mahogany, and the crimson velvet cushions appearing over the ledge of the family gallery above. “I am disappointed,” said she, in a low voice, to Edmund. “This is not my idea of a chapel. There is nothing awful here, nothing melancholy, nothing grand.” . . .

Mrs. Rushworth began her relation. “This chapel was fitted up as you see it, in James the Second’s time. Before that period, as I understand, the pews were only wainscot; and there is some reason to think that the linings and cushions of the pulpit and family seat were only purple cloth; but this is not quite certain. It is a handsome chapel, and was formerly in constant use both morning and evening. Prayers were always read in it by the domestic chaplain, within the memory of many; but the late Mr. Rushworth left it off.” . . .

“It is a pity,” cried Fanny, “that the custom should have been discontinued. It was a valuable part of former times. There is something in a chapel and chaplain so much in character with a great house, with one’s ideas of what such a household should be! A whole family assembling regularly for the purpose of prayer is fine!”–Mansfield Park

See my post on The Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel and Mansfield Park for a visit to the chapel with further quotes from Mansfield Park.

Queen Victoria’s bedroom at Stoneleigh Abbey. In 1858, Queen Victoria stayed for two nights at the Abbey, in a suite of five rooms. The furniture was painted white and gold, according to the Queen’s preference.

In a house so furnished, and so guarded, she could have nothing to explore or to suffer, and might go to her bedroom as securely as if it had been her own chamber at Fullerton.–Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey

Further rooms at Stoneleigh Abbey display historical relics, such as the monks’ charters and seals.

Northanger turned up an abbey, and she was to be its inhabitant. Its long, damp passages, its narrow cells and ruined chapel, were to be within her daily reach, and she could not entirely subdue the hope of some traditional legends, some awful memorials of an injured and ill-fated nun.–Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey

Humphry Repton was hired to improve Stoneleigh Abbey and its surroundings. His Red Book, showing before and after pictures, still exists.
Repton moved the river toward Stoneleigh Abbey so you could see the house reflected in the water.

“Smith’s place is the admiration of all the country; and it was a mere nothing before Repton took it in hand. I think I shall have Repton.”–Mr. Rushworth, Mansfield Park

A ha-ha (see below) at Stoneleigh Abbey gives an uninterrupted view across the fields.
From the other side of Stoneleigh Abbey’s hedge of lavender shown above, you can see the wall that kept animals from trespassing to the area around the house. A ha-ha is a walled ditch dug to act as a fence without disrupting the view.

A few steps farther brought them out at the bottom of the very walk they had been talking of; and standing back, well shaded and sheltered, and looking over a ha-ha into the park, was a comfortable-sized bench, on which they all sat down. . . .

“You will hurt yourself, Miss Bertram,” [Fanny Price] cried; “you will certainly hurt yourself against those spikes; you will tear your gown; you will be in danger of slipping into the ha-ha.”–Mansfield Park

In 1946, Stoneleigh Abbey became “one of the first stately homes to open its doors to the public” (Stoneleigh Abbey, 18). A fire destroyed much of it in 1960, though most of the furniture and paintings were rescued. In 1996, a trust was set up to restore it, at a cost of £12 million. They did an amazing job. Restoration was also done on the grounds and the lake. The restoration work sought to improve the habitats of bats, otters, kingfishers, and other species

Restorers also worked on conserving water management structures such as these locks.
We exit back through the Stoneleigh Abbey gatehouse, having enjoyed a beautiful day.

During their visit, the Austens enjoyed extensive walks through the grounds. Rachel Dodge has posted some of those lovely views. The Austens must have also attended the Stoneleigh Church, St. Mary the Virgin, though we didn’t get to visit it this trip. 

I hope you have enjoyed our visit to Stoneleigh Abbey with Jane Austen’s characters, and that you can see it in person some day! This year, the Abbey celebrated Christmas with a Christmas fair and a series of concerts, including carols in the chapel. If you have been to Stoneleigh Abbey, please tell us about your impressions!

Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.

All photos in this post, © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

Sources and Further Reading

Jane Austen & Adlestrop: Her Other Family, by Victoria Huxley. US Amazon link

Stoneleigh Abbey by Paula Cornwell (obtained from Stoneleigh Abbey)

Jane Austen: A Family Record, 2nd ed., by Deirdre Le Faye

The Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel and Mansfield Park

Jane Austen’s Rich(er) Leigh Family Connections at Adlestrop and Stoneleigh Abbey 

Visiting Stoneleigh Abbey

Cassandra Leigh Austen’s Stay at Stoneleigh Abbey (letter)

Jane Austen’s Leigh Family: Stories Behind the Stories

Jane Austen’s Clergymen and Her Leigh Family

Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Stoneleigh Abbey

More pictures of Stoneleigh village, church, and abbey 

Stoneleigh Abbey website

Ah, holiday gatherings! December is an historic month to celebrate good cheer and good will towards family, friends, and neighbors – this means inviting guests for food, drink, music, games, and entertainments. During Austen’s time, the hosts at houses or assemblies traditionally provided refreshments for their guests. Centuries later we still follow these wonderful customs. This post concentrates on popular drinks prepared for the ladies in the Regency era.

The Darking Hundred describes the drinks most popular during this time – Food, Part the Third: What People Drank, Darking Hundred

“Cordials were popular for social occasions—ratafia, orgeat, negus, and punch among others. Ratafia used a base of distilled spirits into which aromatics were infused, often almonds or fruit pits, and the brew was then sweetened. Orgeat was a syrup made with sugar, orange flower water, and almond that was added to distilled spirits. Negus used a base of sherry or port, to which were added hot water, sugar, nutmeg, and lemon; it was considered an appropriate drink for men or women.“

Regency Drinks

According to history, the patronesses of Almack’s served watered down drinks of orgeat and ratafia, since both of these refreshments were deemed acceptable for ladies. The drinks remained syrupy sweet. Men in general arrived at this strictly exclusive event already soused from having drunk hard liquor at their clubs or at home. Syrupy sweet, watered down drinks would not have tempted them.

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A Ball at Almack’s Assembly Rooms in London, 1821, Version of illustration from the “Tom and Jerry” book (1821) by George CruikshankWikipedia

“There was a balcony at one end where the small orchestra were seated. Refreshments (such as they were) were deliberately (revoltingly) mediocre: weak lemonade or orgeat or ratafia, dry biscuits and day-old brown bread and butter. – Almack’s – it’s not quite what you think…

In no particular order, the drinks served in public assemblies and at festive gatherings were:

Orgeat

This  light, sweet drink was considered appropriate for debutantes. While orgeat was not mentioned by Jane Austen, it was popular in her time.  Pronounced or-zat, readers of Georgette Heyer novels can easily associate this drink with the watered down refreshments described at Almack’s that were considered too syrupy for male tastes. 

Author Sharon Lathan provides a fascinating insight into the history of orgeat, which was once made with barley. The syrup can be purchased today to satisfy a variety of tastes.

“Orgeat syrup, made with almond extract, sugar, and orange flower water, was (and still is) added as a flavoring to punch, coffee, or cocktails. I wouldn’t want to drink this milky liquid by itself, and a little bit goes a long way (we usually only use 1/4 ounce per cocktail). Some drinks were made like orgeat lemonade. Orgeat lemonade would have been orgeat syrup, lemonade and soda water, and might well have been the sort of drink served at Almack’s. and orgeat (distilled from barley or almonds with orange flower water, considered to be a light refreshing drink), Almack’s Assembly Halls – LLWiki

Orgeat was once made with bitter almonds, which in large quantities contained cyanide. The drink could be lethal. Today’s recipes are made with sweet almonds, which reduce the levels of hydrocyanic acid, and are considered safe, except for individuals with allergies. Wikipedia

The Spruce Eats  offers a modern orgeat recipe. Here’s the link: Orgeat Syrup Recipe

Negus

Negus was an English drink popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was an “extremely popular party drink throughout Georgian and early Victorian times.” — The Jane Austen Cookbook, Maggie Black & Deirdre Le Faye)” Click on this link. 

Austen mentioned negus in The Watsons:

“As Tom Musgrave was seen no more, we may suppose his plan to have succeeded, and imagine him mortifying with his barrel of oysters in dreary solitude, or gladly assisting the landlady in her bar to make fresh negus for the happy dancers above.” – The Watsons

Interestingly, during the early Regency era negus and white soup were expected to be served near midnight at balls, such as the one at Netherfield Park. Here’s Martha Lloyd’s recipe for the soup. 

One can imagine the aftermath of the dinner in Emma, when the guests, because of Mr Woodhouse’s panic, quickly departed from the Weston’s party due to a smidgen of fallen snow. Did anyone receive a comforting drink of negus before they hastened into their carriages, I wonder?  Mr Elton perhaps?

Negus still figured prominently in Victorian times. Charles Dickens in  “A Christmas Carol” mentioned old Mr Fezziwig:

“There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and there was cake, and there was negus, and there was a great piece of cold roast, and there was a great piece of cold boiled, and there were mince pies and plenty of beer.” –  Negus – vintage cookbook shelf

Over time, negus morphed into a children’s drink . Yet it still contained alcohol!!. No longer fashionable, the beverage had become similar to mulled wine, as this recipe in Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management attests, and it was made with a variety of ingredients. 

“Negus does have striking similarities to mulled wine — with interchangeable main ingredients of red wine/port, nutmeg, sugar, and citrus like lemon juice or orange zest. So, it seems, the most striking and significant difference between the two popular warm sips is the addition of hot water to the negus recipe A Short History of Negus, the Mulled Wine Beverage of Yesteryear | VinePair

Ratafia

Ratafia was another beverage deemed suitable for ladies.  Its preparation began in December, with the concoction ready to drink in mid-February. Abigail Reynolds writes:

“…along with lemonade, orgeat, and punch, so I assumed it was similarly low in alcoholic content. Silly me! It’s a liqueur made of brandy with fruit, spices, and crushed fruit pits steeped in it for 1-2 months, then filtered and sweetened with large amounts of sugar. The sweetness and fruitiness meant that men didn’t touch the stuff, but if you think about that recipe for a minute, you’ll realize it’s nothing more than slightly diluted flavored brandy. – Austen Variation, Abigail Reynolds, – Ratafia is Not for Sissies  

In her excellent blog, Lesley-Anne McLeod wrote: 

“The Professed Cook” has a section titled Des Ratafiats or Of sweet Drams or Cordials. It includes some ten recipes for different versions of ratafia. They all begin with brandy and they all take thirty to forty days to prepare and infuse. The adventurous cook, it seems, can add almost anything to the brandy. Some of the ingredients listed in “The Professed Cook” include walnuts, quinces, orange-flowers, juniper-berries, lemon-peel, anise seeds and apricots. Plenty of sugar is included and three spices in these receipts in particular–coriander, cinnamon and cloves.” – Lesley-Anne McLeod, Ratafia, The Lady’s Choice 

Ratafia, was either distilled or with an infusion of fruits and spices. The drink had an alcoholic base of Marc brandy and grape juice. A liqueur routinely made in December, could be ready to serve two months later on Valentine’s Day. A recipe for dark brown ratafia suggested that it be stored in an oak barrel for at least two years. — Gin Affair Champagne Punch – Bridgerton Cocktail

At the end of an evening:

In Austen’s day, often after a local assembly ball, a neighbor’s party, or a return from the opera or theatre in town, supper was served quite late. People would gather to eat or drink before returning home in the wee hours of the morning. White soup was served, as well as negus, which was prepared a half hour before guests left for home. 

More on the topic:

This Saturday, December 16th, we wish Jane Austen a very happy birthday! Austen fans and groups around the globe will unite this weekend to celebrate our favorite author, her incredible life, and the novels she wrote.

Here are a few ways you can join in the fun!

Design: Rachel Dodge; Image: James Edward Austen-Leigh, Memoir of Jane Austen, London 1870, Wikimedia Commons.

Schedule a Jane-a-Thon

When is the last time you took a full day off to read Jane Austen’s beloved novels? I can’t imagine a better way to honor her life and celebrate her birthday!

My daughter schedules 24-hour read-alongs with her best friend whenever she has a break from school. I could never handle 24 hours of reading without falling asleep (ah, to be young!), but when I watch them gather their snacks, make their reading schedule, and read around the clock together for a full 24 hours, I always find it inspiring. Don’t you?

Schedules permitting, perhaps you might block off a day or half a day and devote yourself to a Jane-a-thon! Can you imagine spending the whole day with your nose in a Jane Austen novel (or two)?

You might also take a tour of her novels: You could read your favorite portions of each novel, read all the opening chapters and compare Austen’s style in each, or read all of the final chapters and see which one is most satisfying.

Photo: Rachel Dodge

Watch the Films

Another favorite way to celebrate Austen is to have a movie marathon. You can do this alone or with a friend (or a group of friends)! If you want to do a true marathon, you can try to cover all six novels in a day or pick one novel and watch several versions to compare them.

I personally love to turn on the 6-hour, BBC version of Pride and Prejudice (1995) and get some of my Christmas projects done! It’s the prefect movie to watch while you wrap gifts, stuff Christmas cards, bake cookies, or work on other projects.

Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice (1995).

Eat Good Food!

Whether you’re reading Austen’s novels, watching the movie adaptations, or honoring Jane in other creative ways, you must buy or make a few treats to eat in honor of Jane. A traditional English tea can be prepared with homemade or store bought cakes, scones, sandwiches, or other tasty treats.

Truly adventurous bakers might try their hand at traditional Regency baked goods. There are many recipes online, in the many Jane Austen cookbooks that have been published over the years, and in several tea time books devoted to Jane Austen. Here is one of my favorites!

Photo: Rachel Dodge; Tea with Jane Austen, Kim Wilson

You might even try your hand at making a sponge cake in honor of Jane!

You know how interesting the purchase of a sponge-cake is to me.

Jane Austen, Godmersham: Wednesday (June 15), Letter to Cassandra
A delightful Sponge-cake (Bite From the Past)

This recipe from Bite From the Past looks lovely. Angela Hursh provides helpful step-by-step instructions for making the recipe for Jane Austen’s Sponge Cake from Cooking with Jane Austen and Friends by Laura Boyle (now out of print).

Join the Party!

If you really want to go all-out, Jane Austen’s Virtual Birthday Party, hosted by Jane Austen’s House Museum, is a much-loved annual tradition. If you’ve never joined the party online, there is room for everyone! Jane’s birthday falls on Saturday this year, so reserve your spot and set your alarm (depending on your time zone).

Party guests will enjoy fabulous music, fascinating talks, beautiful readings, and all sorts of fun and games in the spirit of Jane Austen and her family.

Description from JAHM: “We’ll be joined by some very special guests! Enjoy a mini keynote by fabulous historian and broadcaster Lucinda Hawksley, a quick dive into Georgian prints by historian Alice Loxton, a dramatic reading by actor Rebecca Tanwen, a sneak peak into the making of the Jane Austen collection at Moorcroft Pottery, a reading by Jessica Bull from her debut novel Miss Austen Investigates, and beautiful music by pianist Laura Klein!”

Regency attire strongly encouraged!

Party Details:

Date: Saturday 16 December
Time: 8pm – 9pm (GMT)
Location: This event takes place online. Join in from the comfort of your own home!
Tickets: £10

Note: This event will be recorded so ticket holders can enjoy it at a later date if needed!

Give a Gift

Finally, one tangible way to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday is to consider giving a gift in her honor to Jane Austen’s House Museum. Chawton Cottage is lovely, secluded, and historic. I’ve visited the house several times, and it is an absolute treasure for Jane Austen fans. This is one simple way we can all play a part in preserving Jane Austen’s legacy both now and in the future.

The House Museum’s current Courtyard Restoration Appeal is designed to help raise funds toward repairing and restoring the roofs of the courtyard buildings, including the Bakehouse, cellars, offices, store rooms, and privy! You can find out more here.

Photo: Courtesy of Jane Austen’s House Museum

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!

Wherever your plans take you this weekend, I hope you’ll join me and everyone here at Jane Austen’s World in honoring and celebrating our Jane on her birthday. She has given us so much, and we all love her tremendously.


RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women DevotionalThe Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Now Available: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

This post features the recollections about a severely cold winter in 1794/95 by three Englishmen: Rutland squire, Thomas Barker, the Rev James Woodforde, a country parson whose diary (1759-1802) provides valuable first hand insights, and an event described by Matthew Flinders, listed in the Lincolnshire Archives. Interestingly, their observations, which read like today’s text messages, will intrigue the modern reader.

The weather in central England during the fall of 1794 started out warmly. Barker recorded:

“The autumn though wet was mild; swallows and martins did not go away till about October 18; the autumnal flowers continued till December, anemones were then in flower; winter and spring flowers were forward, and the leaves of the spring crocus appeared.”

Reverend James Woodforde came to Weston Longville, a small village north of Norwich, in 1775 and remained as rector until his death in 1803. During this time he kept a diary of his life as a country parson. While he mostly focused on parish visits, food, and the people and villages in his surroundings, he concentrated many of his observations on the weather from October to March 1794/95. His descriptions dovetailed nicely with Barker’s notes. In the next two passages Woodforde also mentioned the rains in October and flowers in November:

“The Rain that Fell yesterday [October 6] rose the Water at Foxford & East Mills quite high, Nancy very much alarmed and frightened therewith as it came almost into our little Cart.”

and

“Nov. 30, Sunday …. Mem. a Primrose in my Garden in full bloom, seen by myself and my Niece.”

Thomas Barker then referred to the sudden change in the balmy weather:

“But in the latter half of December the scene altered, and the frost began; it was a mixture of severe and moderate frost, falling and melting snows, and floods, with hard frost and breaks; the beginning of a very severe winter … for a quarter of a year, yet now without a thawing day or two now and then in January…”

Pastor Woodforde wrote a sequence of descriptions on weather events and how they impacted his life. One gains a visceral sense of how the intense and unrelenting cold invaded houses and affected the inhabitants down to their bones.

Dec 25, Thursday, X-mas day….It was very cold indeed this Morning, and the Snow in many Places quite deep, with an E. Wind. About 11. this Morning I walked to Church and read Prayers & administered the Holy Sacrament. Had but few Communicants the Weather was so bad….The Weather being so severely cold, which I could never escape from feeling its effects at all times, affected me so much this Morning, that made me faint away…..Mr Howlett after Service, very kindly offered to drive me home in his Cart, but as I was better I declined it, however hope that I shall not forget his civility….

and

Jan. 15, Thursday….Got up this morning very bad indeed in the Gout in my right foot….The Weather Most piercing, severe frost, with Wind & some Snow, the Wind from the East and very rough…I had my bed warmed to night & a fire in my bed-Room….Obliged to put on my great Shoe, lined with flannel.  The Weather very much against me besides.

and

Jan. 21, Wednesday….The last Night, the most severest yet, extreme cold. So cold that the Poultry kept in the Cart-Shed and obliged to be driven out to be fed….

Jan. 23, Friday….The Weather more severe than ever, it froze apples within doors, tho’ covered with a thick carpet. The cold to day was the severest I ever felt. The Thermometer in my Study, with a fire, down to No. 46….

and

Jan. 25, Sunday….The Ice in the Pond in the Yard which is broke every Morning for the Horses, froze two Inches in thickness last Night, when broke this morning.

The pastor also wrote that a terrible storm took the thatch off the barn and stripped the tiles from his roof. On the 28th he described a “very severe frost indeed. It freezes sharply within doors,” and he related the sad news of two women who “froze to death Saturday last going home from Norwich market to their home.” 

Early February provided a smidgen of hope:

Feb. 8, Sunday…..Weather much altered, very foggy and a cold Thawe, with very small Rain, all the whole day. I hope to God that now We shall no more have any severe Frosts this Year…

Woodforde’s hopes were premature, however. Thomas Barker observed that a thaw for four or five days from February 8 to 12: 

“…took away a great part of the snow, and made a greater flood than any remembered, which did more damage to the bridges all over the kingdom than was ever known yet without taking away all the ice and snow; the frost returned again as hard as before, and with a less break near the end of February …”

The Lincolnshire Archives provides a description from Matthew Flinders, who wrote about the abnormal winter and great flooding as the snow melted. His observations add dimension to Barker’s and Woodforde’s writings, for he referred to the misery that farmers and peasants must have felt. He also mentioned the war raging in the background, which affected all Englishmen during this period.:

“…This has been the severest winter in these climates known in living memory… the snow began at Xmas Eve  – and continued with intervals most of the time. I think I may say more has fallen than in the last 7 years together and several times more on the ground, than has been since the great snow in 1767 when it was a yard deep on the level… very great damage has been done on the breaking up of the frost by the floods – numbers of bridges being broke down, and large tracts of land overflowed – no such flooded known since the memorable year 1764. Great injury done to the farmers – much sowed wheat destroyed & the poor much distressed – tho’ there were very liberal subscriptions in many towns. This added to the distress occasioned by the War – has given the times an alarming aspect w’ch I hope God in his good time will remove.” [Lincolnshire Archives] – Extreme weather events in focus: White Christmases

The flooding was ruinous to the winter crops. Pastor Woodforde also worried that the poor people would suffer from the effects. 

More recently, John Kington from the University of East Anglia states that the cold in January 1795: 

…was exceptionally severe, it was not until Christmas Eve 1794 [as previously related] that the very cold conditions set in The frost then lasted, but without breaks, until late March. The cold was most intense in January, which resulted in the coldest January (-3.1°C) in the Central England Temperatures series (Manley 1974). –  The Severe winter of 1794/95 in England, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich

An article in The Guardian dated Jan 01, 2022 provides the following information about the cold’s impact on people:

The coldest January since 1659, when records began in England, was in 1795 when rivers including the Thames and Severn froze over. The temperature barely rose above freezing all month.

and

Country parsons, who fed poor people at Christmas, gave them a shilling each to buy food for January. Grain was in already in short supply because of a dry summer and hunger became so widespread that the following spring there were bread riots. (Read more on this topic later in this post.)

The thaw previously mentioned on February 8 by Parson Woodforde and Thomas Barker resulted in floods that devastated lands in Norwich, near the Pastor’s parish, but also farther west in Shrewsbury. Shrophsire Star.com features a facsimile of the news published on February 13, 1795. The following information are excerpts from that facsimile, which you can read in full at this link to the article

In consequence of the sudden thaw after so long a frost, the Severn has overflowed its banks to a higher degree than ever was known in the memory of man. This town is, therefore now nearly an island; neither the Mail-Coach or any other carriages could get out of town on Wednesday morning, the water being so deep at both the bridges….

and

…Great quantities of timber have been carried away by the violence of the flood; several houses are fell in, and the furniture entirely swept off;…the inhabitants….cannot leave their habitations but by boats; a number of horses, cattle and pigs have been drowned…

and

Great praise is due to several humane Gentleman, who were active in assisting the poor people whose dwellings were inundated. Several boats loaded with fresh meat, bread and cheese, etc. were sent for the relief of such poor persons who could not leave their habitations, and which was given to them thro’ their chamber windows.

The flooding did not reflect the full extent of the damage from the east of central England to the west, for the “thaw” did not last. A cold spell ten days later froze the Severn to such an extent that John Kington wrote: 

On the 23rd [of January], the Severn [river] was frozen and a printing press, after the fashion set on the Thames, was set up on the ice. 

The River Severn, which is the longest river in England, experienced thick frosts during the “mini” ice age of the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. By 1795 at least ten frost fairs were held on the Thames River. Communities along the Seven, while not as organized as those along the Thames, held frost fairs in 1620, 1622, 1795, and lastly in 1855. – Wyre Forest Net

Despite the hardships from the hard freezes, these “frost fairs” provided winter entertainments in the form of food tents, sports, and games. Paper souvenirs were printed on the ice. They all but shouted for posterity — “I was at the Frost Fair at the Severn in 1795!” These mementos could be simple or more elaborate, depending on the amount of money the fair goer could afford to spend. The image below of a Frost Fair on the Thames River shows a long line of revelers waiting at the printing press for their choices. Other images in the links provided below depict simple or more elaborate souvenirs saved by fair goers.

Screen Shot 2023-11-30 at 11.04.26 AM

Close up of a printing press set up on ice on the Thames River.The British Library, Printing on Ice

This link leads to four affordable paper souvenirs printed on a sheet. Click to view. This elaborate Frost Fair souvenir was printed in 1740. Click here.

In his Memoir of that winter, Pastor Woodforde did not mention a Frost Fair, but he continued to observe the weather in his diary. On Feb. 18 he wrote: 

Wednesday….Very hard Frost, with strong Easterly Winds, a black Frost*. Every Vegetable seems affected by it. A cold this day almost, as any this Winter. I felt it before I got up this Morning, pain within me. It froze very sharp within doors all the day long. Dinner to day odds and ends, but very good. Had a fire again in My bedchamber to night, tho’ I had left if off some time, bitter cold to night.

*a dry, non visible killing frost that turns vegetation black (Oxford Languages)

Feb. 20, Friday….This Day is said to be this most cutting this Winter. It snowed the whole Day, but small & very drifting. The cold this day affected us this day so much that it gave us pains all over us, within & without and were even cold tho’ sitting by a good fire….

and

Feb. 22, Sunday….Severe, cold Weather still continues, froze again within doors. In the Afternoon some Snow. I am afraid now that we shall have more of it–The New Moon being now three Days old, and no appearance of a change.

The weather was unrelenting. Pastor Woodforde went on to say that although he meant to make an appearance at church, the weather continued on so severely and with so much snow on the ground that he “sent word to my Parishioners that there would be no service.” 

His journal mentioned only one final entry in my edition of his memoirs regarding these severe winter events:

March 13, Friday….Ground covered with Snow this Morning, having a great deal of Snow in the Night. The Morning was fair but Air very cold. A 4th Winter….

A fourth winter indeed. Thomas Barker picked up the narrative:

… it continued into March. It was in general a calm frost, with vast quantities of snow coming and going, so that though it was pretty thick at times, it never lay so deep as it sometimes does. But perhaps some of the deep pits of snow and beds of ice were not entirely gone at the end of March.”

The effects of this cold weather on the populace did not end with a warming spring. 

“Grain was already scarce thanks to a hot and dry summer in 1794, but Britain was at war with revolutionary France, too, which disrupted imports and raised food prices even higher. The Gentlemen’s Magazine, a popular periodical from the time, warned of “unprecedented inclemency” – How British people weathered exceptionally cold winters, University of Liverpool Research News, 04 January 2021

Some rich landowners feared an uprising due to the scarcity of food, bread, and fuel. 

Land agent William Gould’s diary entry for January 21 1795 notes that he was instructed to give money, coal, beef and bread to the hungry around the Duke of Portland’s Welbeck estate in Nottinghamshire. Elsewhere in the county, Reverend Samuel Hopkinson bought peat turf (a kind of fuel) to distribute to the poor on behalf of Earl Fitzwilliam. – University of Liverpool Research News, 2021

Even with this ‘minimal’ support, the general populace suffered and bread riots ensued the following spring.

More resources:

By Brenda S. Cox

“Your letter to Adlestrop may perhaps bring you information from the spot . . .”–Jane Austen writing to her sister Cassandra about a relative in Adlestrop they loved, Elizabeth Leigh, who was very ill. Jan. 10, 1809

I’ve just finished a fascinating little book, Jane Austen & Adlestrop: Her Other Family, by Victoria Huxley. Huxley tells the stories of Austen’s Leigh relatives alongside frequent quotes from Austen’s works as well as other contemporary sources. I highly recommend this book, but I’ll share some highlights.

Members of the JASNA Summer Tour were entertained by church members at Adlestrop. Author Victoria Huxley sells her book to me, Brenda Cox. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

We know Jane Austen didn’t take her characters or situations directly from life. And yet, for every author, the experiences we have and hear about, and the people we know and know of, are all grist for the mill. They come together in new shapes and forms as we write. Jane Austen was close to her Leigh relatives, so it’s not surprising their lives fed into her novels in various ways.

The Leigh Family

Jane’s mother Cassandra Leigh Austen was from an old family descended from a Lord Mayor of London, Sir Thomas Leigh (1498-1571). During Sir Thomas’s lifetime, King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, making much land available for purchase. Sir Thomas invested widely. When he died, he owned extensive lands in four counties plus London.

His eldest son, Rowland, inherited Adlestrop and the lands around it in Gloucestershire (north of Oxford). His second son, Thomas, inherited Stoneleigh, Hamstall Ridware, and other estates in Staffordshire (north of Gloucestershire). The Adlestrop line remained country squires, while the Stoneleigh line gained a peerage by supporting Charles I in the English Civil War. They became far wealthier than the Adlestrop Leighs. By Jane Austen’s time, the Stoneleigh estate was worth around £17,000 a year, more than the income of wealthy Mr. Rushworth (£13,000) or Mr. Darcy (£10,000)!

Jane Austen must have attended the lovely old church at Adlestrop on her three visits to her mother’s cousin, Rev. Thomas Leigh, who was rector there. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

I won’t inflict the whole family tree on you, as they repeated the same names over and over. Some of their favorite names were Thomas, Theophilus, James, Cassandra, and Mary. Cassandra Leigh Austen’s father was Rev. Thomas Leigh (1696-1764), and her mother’s maiden name was Jane Walker. Cassandra Leigh also had a sister named Jane, a sister-in-law named Jane, and, our favorite, a daughter named Jane (plus a daughter named Cassandra, and two first cousins named Cassandra). Jane Walker brought the Perrot family’s wealth into the family. [In the following, whenever I say “Cassandra Leigh” or “Cassandra Leigh Austen,” I mean our Jane Austen’s mother, not her sister.]

The chancel of the Adlestrop church (area around the altar). Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Adlestrop, Jane Austen, and the Clergy

Adlestrop is now best known for a poem written in 1914 by Edward Thomas, who died three years later in World War I. His train stopped there briefly, and the poem describes the natural beauties of the area, the “willows, willow-herb, and grass” and a blackbird singing. Adlestrop is still a small, rural town, as it was in Austen’s time.

The squire of the manor, Adlestrop Park, during Jane’s lifetime was James Henry Leigh, who inherited in 1774, when he was only nine years old. His uncle, Rev. Thomas Leigh, was his guardian and the rector of Adlestrop at that time. He was Cassandra Leigh’s first cousin. Rev. Thomas lived with his wife Mary and his unmarried sister Elizabeth, who was the godmother of Jane’s sister Cassandra.

Memorial to James Henry Leigh, squire of Adlestrop when Austen visited there. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Apparently Cassandra Leigh was closer to Rev. Thomas than to James Henry. On their visits, the Austens always stayed in the rectory, not in the great house. They would certainly have attended the Adlestrop church, where Rev. Thomas preached. Jane Austen first visited Adlestrop in 1794, when she was 19. She visited again five years later, in 1799, and then in 1806, when she was 31. Throughout the years, the Austen and Leigh families kept in touch through letters.

The nave of the Adlestrop church, where the congregation sits. Perhaps Jane Austen sat on one of these pews, or an earlier version of them. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Many of Cassandra Leigh’s relatives were clergymen*, including her father, an uncle, two cousins, a brother-in-law, and a nephew. Leigh family members were patrons of various church livings connected with their extensive properties, and bestowed those livings on relatives, as was customary. In Austen’s novels, for example, both Henry Tilney and Edmund Bertram receive livings from their fathers. Livings might also be given by more distant relations. The Honorable Mary Leigh, for example, gave Edward Cooper (Jane Austen’s cousin) his living at Hamstall Ridware in Staffordshire. 

A living green cross welcomes visitors to the Adlestrop church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Stoneleigh Abbey and Inheritance

In 1806, the last member of the Stoneleigh branch of the Leigh family, the Honorable Mary Leigh, died, and Rev. Thomas Leigh, inherited. Mrs. Austen [Cassandra Leigh, who was Rev. Thomas’s first cousin], with her daughters Jane and Cassandra, were visiting Rev. Thomas at the time, and they traveled with him to take possession of Stoneleigh. The Abbey made a strong impression on Jane and her family. Mrs. Austen wrote letters describing its wonders.

When Rev. Leigh inherited Stoneleigh Abbey, he gave a settlement to another claimant*, Jane’s uncle, James Leigh-Perrot (Cassandra Leigh’s brother). The understanding was that rich Mr. Leigh-Perrot would share this settlement with the needy Austens and Coopers. However, he did not. Jane attributed this lack of generosity to Mrs. Leigh-Perrot; perhaps she was caricatured as selfish Fanny Dashwood of Sense and Sensibility. You can find more details in “Jane Austen’s Leigh Family: Stories behind the Stories.”

When James Leigh-Perrot died, he left almost everything to his wife. Eventually, when Mrs. Leigh-Perrot died in 1836, some of her estate went to Jane’s nephew, James’s son James Edward. He had to take the name Leigh, becoming James Edward Austen-Leigh. 

Next month I’ll post more pictures of Stoneleigh Abbey and talk about its possible parallels with Sotherton and Northanger Abbey in Austen’s novels.

The Leighs who inherited Stoneleigh Abbey and the surrounding lands eventually became much wealthier than the Leighs who inherited Adlestrop. But when that branch died out, some of the Adlestrop Leighs inherited the Abbey. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Improvements—Mansfield Park

“Improvements” of land and property often meant providing more “picturesque,” more “natural” views, according to the ideas promoted by Gilpin at the time. In Mansfield Park, Mr. Rushworth wants to get the well-known expert, Humphry Repton, to improve his estate. Henry Crawford has already improved his own estate, and he advises Edmund Bertram on improving his parsonage. In Sense and Sensibility, Mrs. Dashwood talks often of making improvements to Barton Cottage, but she never has the funds for it. John and Fanny Dashwood do spend their money making improvements to Norland, which Elinor and Marianne don’t think much of. Mr. Collins makes improvements to his parsonage. Elizabeth is impressed that the Darcys have shown good taste in improving Pemberley, inside and out.

Austen more strongly commends personal “improvement,” though, improvement in mind, in manners, in education.

Austen would have known first-hand about Repton and his improvements from her cousins in Adlestrop and Stoneleigh. Rev. Thomas Leigh and his nephew employed Repton to make improvements to the manor, rectory, and surrounding lands of Adlestrop. Records show payments to Repton between 1798 and 1812.

Adlestrop House, the former rectory, where Jane Austen and her family stayed. The bow on the left side was added later, and the entrance returned to its original position. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Rev. Leigh “improved” his parsonage at Adlestrop by moving his front door to another side of the house, so the principal rooms would face the pretty valley. He also destroyed “a dirty farmyard and house which came within a few yards of the Windows.” Similarly, in Mansfield Park, Henry Crawford tells Edmund Bertram that he must improve his parsonage: “The farmyard must be cleared away entirely, and planted up to shut out the blacksmith’s shop. The house must be turned to front the east instead of the north—the entrance and principal rooms, I mean, must be on that side, where the view is really very pretty.” He also recommends combining gardens, changing a stream, and moving a road.

Rev. Thomas Leigh enclosed neighbouring land (with permission), adding it to his church living, and created a small lake from some flooded ground. As Huxley says, “Now he had a ‘Pleasure Ground’ to rival his brother’s” (at the Adlestrop estate). He moved roads and paths, as Mr. Knightley is planning to do in Emma. Jane Austen would have seen these improvements first hand during her visits. Sometimes she might have felt, like Mary Crawford, that all was “dirt and confusion, without a gravel walk to step on, or a bench fit for use” because of all the changes in process. However, as Mr. Collins did for his visitors, no doubt Rev. Leigh proudly took the Austen family on a thorough tour of his parsonage and its gardens, pointing out with pride all the improvements he was making.

In 1799, some land was exchanged between the church and the manor. In return, James Henry paid to build and fence a better church road and enclose the churchyard with a stone wall. In 1800, Repton was hired to unite the gardens of the rectory and Adlestrop Park, to improve the views. Dr. Grant in Mansfield Park also extends a wall and makes a plantation “to shut out the churchyard,” improving the view from the parsonage.

Rev. Thomas Leigh expanded the park area between the rectory and Adlestrop Park, adding an unused part of the church graveyard to the Park. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Austen would have heard about Repton’s later “improvements” in Stoneleigh Abbey’s grounds, which Thomas Leigh set about once he moved in. Repton’s “Red Book,” showing the suggested improvements, is still in existence. You can see a video of it here. Not all of Repton’s recommendations were followed, but some were.

The Leighs and Persuasion

Two other stories from the Leigh family are echoed in Persuasion. At one point, the Adlestrop family was deep in debt and needed to “retrench” in order not to lose the estate. They rented out the manor and moved to Holland for some years, until their finances were in order. Sir Walter and his family, of course, only moved to Bath; we wonder if they will ever make it back to Kellynch!

The Leighs also had an aunt who fell in love with an army officer. The family disapproved because of his lack of money. She married him secretly before he went off to war. When he returned as–guess who? Captain Wentworth!– she finally got her family’s approval. Elizabeth Wentworth and her Captain became wealthy and were benefactors to their Leigh relatives. The largest marble tablet in the Adlestrop church, just behind the pulpit, memorializes Elizabeth Wentworth.

For more of these stories, see my post on the Stories Behind the Stories

Memorial in the Adlestrop church to Elizabeth Wentworth, whose story is similar to Anne Elliot’s in Persuasion. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Adlestrop Today

The church, St. Mary Magdalene, at Adlestrop is well worth a visit. The church dates from the thirteenth century, though much of it was rebuilt in the 1750s. In the Victorian period, the window traceries were replaced, and stained glass windows and a clock added. The church is one of seven in the Evenlode Vale Benefice. Services are usually held at St. Mary Magdalene twice a month. Like other country churches, a handful of the faithful attend regular services, while larger crowds come to special services at Harvest and Christmas. We don’t know about attendance numbers in Austen’s time. Supposedly, by 1851, “‘all parishioners without exception‘ attended church at least once a week” (Huxley, 201). 

St. Mary Magdalene’s Church, Adlestrop. The interior includes many memorials to the Leigh family, and many of the family are buried in the churchyard.Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

The rectory where Jane and her family stayed is now called Adlestrop House, and, along with Adlestrop Park, still belongs to the Leigh family. Both are very close to the church, but are not open to the public. The lands were originally monastic lands owned by Evesham Abbey.

The Old Schoolhouse opposite the church was built after Austen’s time. However, Austen probably saw the earlier charity school, supported by donations from the Leigh family and other local gentry. In 1803, sixteen children learned reading, knitting, and other marketable skills at that “school of industry.” By 1818 there was a day school for boys and another for girls. A Sunday school attended by 52 children was supported by a bequest from Rev. Thomas Leigh (Huxley, 203). (Sunday schools taught reading and other basic skills to working-class children, who were only free on Sundays.)

The last chapter of Jane Austen & Adlestrop takes readers on a tour of Adlestrop today, still a sleepy country village, but with history around every corner.

Adlestrop Park, the manor, etching in 1818, from Historic England.
Across from the church in Adlestrop is the “Coachman’s Cottage,” in a building dated 1722. The “Old Schoolhouse” next door was probably built in the mid-1800s. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Notes

* Claimants for the Stoneleigh Abbey estate (this is complicated, sorry! You can find a chart of these relationships in Jane Austen & Adlestrop, by Victoria Huxley, or in Jane Austen and the Clergy, by Irene Collins):

Theophilus Leigh (died 1724), of the Adlestrop Leighs (great-great grandson of the Lord Mayor), had 14 children.

Theophilus’s oldest son, William, had a son named James (who died in 1774). James had one son (Theophilus’s grandson), James Henry (1765-1823). William’s second son was Rev. Thomas Leigh (1734-1813), rector of Adlestrop, who had no children.

Theophilus’s next surviving son, Dr. Theophilus Leigh (died 1785), was a clergyman and Master of Balliol at Oxford. He had no sons who survived childhood. One of his daughters married Rev. Thomas Leigh of Adlestrop, and another married Rev. Samuel Cooke, Jane Austen’s godfather.

Theophilus’s next son, also Rev. Thomas Leigh (died 1764), was Cassandra Leigh Austen’s father. He had a son, James Leigh-Perrot (1735-1817), just a year younger than Rev. Thomas Leigh of Adlestrop. James had added “Perrot” to his last name to get an inheritance from his wife’s family.

So in 1806, the closest living male heirs were Rev. Thomas Leigh of Adlestrop, who inherited the estate, then he passed it to his nephew James Henry Leigh. They gave money to James Leigh-Perrot, the third claimant, to pay off his claim.

For more stories of the Leigh family and their connections with Jane Austen’s novels, see “Jane Austen’s Leigh Family: Stories behind the Stories.”

Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.

Further Reading

“Jane Austen’s Leigh Family: Stories Behind the Stories”

“Jane Austen’s Clergymen and Her Leigh Family”

“Edward Cooper: Jane Austen’s Evangelical Cousin”

“Jane Austen’s Family Churches: St. Michael and All Angels, Hamstall Ridware”

 

Sources

Jane Austen & Adlestrop: Her Other Family, by Victoria Huxley. Highly recommended. US Amazon link

The Story of Elizabeth Wentworth or “Aunt Betty”—Jane Austen’s Anne Elliot? By Sheila Woolf (obtained from Stoneleigh Abbey)

Stoneleigh Abbey by Paula Cornwell (obtained from Stoneleigh Abbey)

Jane Austen: A Family Record, 2nd ed., by Deirdre Le Faye 

Adlestrop Park and House

St. Mary Magdalene, Adlestrop 

Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and Stoneleigh Abbey

This week the United States celebrates Thanksgiving, a holiday in honor of families and friendship. For the most part, we lay aside our differences and grievances, and give thanks for what we have. The poor, aged, and lonely are not forgotten. Community soup kitchens are filled with volunteers, and many are turned away because of the sheer volume who want to serve their less fortunate brethren. 

This annual North American feast is reminiscent of the British Christmas dinners celebrated in Jane Austen’s day. In Emma, Mr Elton states:

This is quite the season indeed for friendly meetings. At Christmas, everybody invites their friends about them, and people think little of even the worst weather.” 

If we substitute Christmas for Thanksgiving, Austen’s phrase applies just as well. Foods offered on the Georgian Christmas table and Colonial thanksgiving tables in the U.S. and Canada have been remarkably similar from the 17th century on: Soup, cheese, nuts, turkey, goose, duck, mashed potato, yams, fresh cranberries, dried fruits, pumpkin and mince pies.

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Image of traditional Thanksgiving foods. iStock image, LauriPatterson.

We North Americans have our British ancestors to thank for this tradition, so closely tied to these countries’ respective fall harvests. Earlier ripening explains why Canada’s Thanksgiving falls on the second Monday of October, almost two months before its southern neighbor, the US, celebrates this event. 

Canadian Thanksgiving:

One can only envision the reaction of explorer Martin Frobisher and his men when, in three voyages to Canada to find a northwest passage to Asia, they encountered the immensity, richness, and diversity of flora and fauna, and countless miles of almost untouched forests, lakes, and fields populated by an abundance of wildlife. These natural riches must have overwhelmed their senses, prompting them to give thanks in a tradition still celebrated today. The reality was less than elaborate:

In 1578, … privateer and mariner Sir Martin Frobisher was the first European to celebrate “Thanksgiving” with his crew. The meal was decidedly less glamorous than today’s feasts: mostly salt beef, biscuits and mushy peas. The locale, too, was less inviting. Frobisher and his men celebrated in current-day Nunavut, likely aboard one of the 15 ships that had set sail to discover a northwest passage to Asia’s trading areas. – A Short History of Thanksgiving in Canada, Ottawa Citizen 

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Explorer Samuel de Champlain organized a thanksgiving celebration in the early 17th century which is more reminiscent of today’s ceremonies than Frobisher’s. To prevent scurvy, Champlain introduced a variety of foods that included fresh vegetables and fruits high in vitamin C, such as cranberries. Since the 18th century, Nova Scotia’s Thanksgiving meals have resembled today’s variety of foods. But this is not the full story. Without indigenous Indians, neither the Canadian explorers nor the pilgrims would have survived long enough to present a meal of any great variety. 

U.S. Thanksgiving:

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Romantic version of the first Thanksgiving in the U.S. Plymouth Rock Foundation.

In contrast to the happy scene depicted in the storybook image above, settlers and indigenous warriors experienced devastating losses from natural causes – the settlers from starvation and the tribes from the loss of as much as 50 to 90 percent of their population to the epidemics the Europeans brought with them. The pilgrims and Wampanoags joined forces to strengthen their numbers and to fight off possible attacks from other Indian tribes. And so the Wampanoags taught settlers to plant corn and other vegetables and to use herring for fertilizer. Under their tutelage, the pilgrims learned to fish for cod and bass, build housing with the materials at hand, and trade and barter for products they could not produce. 

N.C._Wyeth_-_Thanksgiving_with_Indians_(detail)

Detail of an NC Wyeth painting, Wikimedia Commons

After the bountiful result of their hard labor, the pilgrims commemorated their success with a series of feasts that featured the riches of their fall harvest. The chief of the Wampanoags, Massasoit, attended the event for three days with 90 men. They brought five deer, which were roasted, and played games in celebration.  According to an article in the National Endowment for the Humanities entitled Who Were the Pilgrims Who Celebrated the First Thanksgiving? | The National Endowment for the Humanities this was the true first American Thanksgiving.

Interestingly, in 1862 President Lincoln declared the turkey to be the official meat for the Thanksgiving dinner table. Before this time, there was no consensus. U.S. dinner tables had featured venison, ham, pheasant, duck, oysters, and other choices preferred regionally, such as bison. Personally, I like turkey once a year. At Christmas, I prefer ham.

Sketch-of-a-Christmas-Celebration-Republic-of-Pemberley

Festive 19th century Christmas goodies for a family. Image: British Food and Travel 

British Christmas Dinner:

When one examines the traditional Traditional Christmas dinner menu featured in this BBC Good Food website, one recognizes how close the three nations still are in their traditional celebratory food offerings. Oh, variations have crept in. Local foods are offered in abundance (in Maryland crab cakes and seafood recipes are heavily featured, and Tex Mex recipes are also making an appearance, especially at the appetizer and dessert tables.) But overall, we U.S. Americans are staying with the traditional holiday feast on the 4th Thursday in November.

Author Syrie James’s Jane Austen quote is apropos for both holiday feasts:

After Jane Austen’s Christmas guests had departed in January 1807, Jane wrote to her sister, Cassandra, “I shall be left to the comfortable disposal of my time, to ease of mind from the torments of rice puddings and apple dumplings, and probably to regret that I did not take more pains to please them all.”  

Dear readers, I have an exquisite new book to share with you today: Jane Austen’s Wardrobe by Hilary Davidson!

Filled with incredible photos and written information, it’s one of the most detailed books I’ve seen in a long time on this topic. Not only is it beautiful, it is filled with fascinating information on one of my most favorite topics.

This is my new favorite book on Jane Austen’s Regency Fashion. I know I’ll continue to pour over it for years to come!

Austen’s Wardrobe by Category

Within the pages of this lovely book, Davidson works her way through Austen’s personal wardrobe chronologically, from head to toe. Davidson’s system for cataloging Austen’s wardrobe is fascinating! For those of us who delight in a linear and/or chronological order to a wide and varied topic, Davidson definitely checks all the boxes.

First, she breaks all of Austen’s clothing down into the following categories:

  • Clothes Press: Gowns
  • Closet: Spencers, Pelisses and Outer Garments
  • Band Box: Hats, Caps and Bonnets
  • Shelves: Shawls, Tippets, Cloaks and Shoes
  • Dressing Table: Gloves, Fans, Flowers, Trims and Handkerchiefs
  • Jewelery Box: Necklaces, Rings and Bracelets
  • Drawers: Undergarments and Nightwear

Davidson even includes several pages of sketches, descriptions, and explanations for Jane’s “Portrait Gown” – which I found completely engrossing.

Austen’s Letters Quoted

Next, Davidson utilizes Austen’s personal letters to explore every inch of Austen’s wardrobe, working her way through each category in chronological order. To do this, she shares one quote at time, citing portions of letters that mention Austen’s clothing. Then, for each article of clothing, every hat, and every piece of jewelry, she explains that quote in great detail and provides photos to aid our understanding.

For instance, Austen writes this in Letter 65:

“I can easily suppose that your six weeks here will be fully occupied, were it only in lengthening the waists of your gowns. I have pretty well arranged my spring & summer plans of that kind, & mean to wear out my spotted Muslin before I go. –You will exclaim at this–but mine has signs of feebleness, which with a little care may come to something.”

Tuesday 17 – Wednesday 18 January, 1809, Castle Square

Davidson provides photos of spotted muslin fabric swatches and a photo of a dress made of spotted muslin, dated 1805-10. Then she explains the muslin fabric, provides quotes from Austen’s novels about muslin dresses, and explains Austen’s quote. She goes over the dress styles, what was involved in “lengthening the waist” of a gown, the meaning of “worked” fabric, and the ins and outs of fragile fabrics of that time period, including how women used belts to cover holes in the fabric when a waist was lengthened.

I found this incredibly interesting because I’ve always been curious about Austen’s extensive quotes about her dresses and hats in her letters. The result is a delightful (and sometimes hilarious) tour through Jane Austen’s closet in her own words, with pictures and explanations to match!

Here are several more examples, provided by Yale University Press:

Informative and Beautiful

Like many of Austen’s heroines, this book is both intelligent and beautiful. Inside and out, this book is absolutely stunning. The photos provide a detailed look into Jane Austen’s clothing that is hard to find, especially all in one place. This book feels like a worldwide museum tour of all the most exquisite clothing artifacts from Austen’s time.

This is the perfect addition to any Jane Austen library – and it will look gorgeous on your coffee table!

Book Description

Hilary Davidson delves into the clothing of one of the world’s great authors, providing unique and intimate insight into her everyday life and material world.
 
Acclaimed dress historian and Austen expert Hilary Davidson reveals, for the first time, the wardrobe of one of the world’s most celebrated authors. Despite her acknowledged brilliance on the page, Jane Austen has all too often been accused of dowdiness in her appearance. Drawing on Austen’s 161 known letters, as well as her own surviving garments and accessories, this book assembles examples of the variety of clothes she would have possessed—from gowns and coats to shoes and undergarments—to tell a very different story.

The Jane Austen Hilary Davidson discovers is alert to fashion trends but thrifty and eager to reuse and repurpose clothing. Her renowned irony and wit peppers her letters, describing clothes, shopping, and taste. Jane Austen’s Wardrobe offers the rare pleasure of a glimpse inside the closet of a stylish dresser and perpetually fascinating writer.

About the Author

Hilary Davidson is a dress, textile and fashion historian and curator. Her work encompasses making and knowing, things and theory, with an extraordinary understanding of how historic clothing objects come to be and how they function in culture.

Hilary is equally skilled in analysing historical and archaeological material culture artefacts; presenting engaging, fascinating talks to diverse audiences; and producing influential academic research.

Her extensive experience includes:

  • Scholarly research
  • Lecturing, teaching and public talks
  • Broadcasting and journalism
  • Historic dressmaking

Hilary trained as a bespoke shoemaker in her native Australia before completing a Masters in the History of Textiles and Dress at Winchester School of Art (University of Southampton) in 2004. Since graduating, Hilary’s practice has concerned the relationship between theoretical and highly material approaches to dress history, especially in the early modern and medieval periods.

As a skilled and meticulous handsewer, she has created replica clothing projects for a number of museums, including a ground-breaking replication of Jane Austen’s pelisse. At the same time she lectured extensively on fashion history, theory and culture, on semiotics, and cultural mythologies, especially red shoes.

In 2007 Hilary became curator of fashion and decorative arts at the Museum of London. She contributed to the £20 million permanent gallery redevelopment opening in 2010, and curated an exhibition on pirates, while continuing to publish, teach and lecture in the UK and internationally. In collaboration with Museum of London Archaeology, Hilary began analysing archaeological textiles and continues to cross disciplines by consulting in this area in England and Australia. She also worked on the AHRC 5-star rated Early Modern Dress and Textiles Network (2007-2009) and from 2011 has appeared as an expert on a number of BBC historical television programmes, and as a frequent radio guest speaker in London and Sydney.

From 2012 Hilary worked between Sydney and London as a freelance curator, historian, broadcaster, teacher, lecturer, consultant and designer, while working on a PhD in Archaeology at La Trobe University, Melbourne. In addition to historical studies she has been a jewellery designer, graphic designer, photographer, gallerist, and worked in retail fashion and vintage clothing. In 2022 she moved to New York City to take up the role of Associate Professor and Chair of the MA Fashion and Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Hilary has taught and lectured extensively, including at the University of Southampton, Central St Martins, the University of Cambridge, the University of Glasgow, New York University London, The American University Paris, Fashion Design Studio TAFE Sydney and the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Sydney. She speaks regularly at academic conferences and to the public. Her first monograph book was Dress in the Age of Jane Austen (2019) followed by Jane Austen’s Wardrobe in 2023. Her extensive publications can be found on Academia and ResearchGate.

To Order the Book:

You can order the book by clicking HERE
or by clicking the image below:

Recommended Book Gift

I hope you’ve enjoyed this short tour of this stunning new book by Hilary Davidson. If you’re looking for a gift for a fellow Jane Austen fan, or if your friends or family members need an idea for a gift for you this holiday season, I highly recommend this one!


RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women DevotionalThe Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Now Available: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

Moving in Jane Austen’s Day

Inquiring readers,

I recently moved and, like Jane, left a home I loved. When I purchased my current slice of paradise, I found my perfect place. In addition, my new neighborhood suits my personality. Echoes of Jane Austen in Chawton Cottage!

Rachel Dodge, who writes splendid articles for this blog, wrote a wonderful post last year about moving entitled Jane Austen’s Tips on Moving House. I cannot improve on her article. I can,  however, discuss the various 18th C. methods by which the English moved their possessions – large or small. 

A Posting Inn Rowlandson

Thomas Rowlandson: A Posting Inn, 1787, Met Museum, public domain image

This  print shows three vehicles beside an inn – two moving, one parked:

  1. The parked vehicle is a public coach laden with passengers and drawn by four horses. The animals are being switched out for a fresh team, which, depending on the size, weight, and speed of the coach occurs every 6 – 12 hours. Switches slowed the journey’s progress and provided passengers with an opportunity to disembark and look to their personal needs. Some might choose to spend the night or enjoy a meal at the inn, much like Lydia, Kitty, Jane and Elizabeth.

“…in Hertfordshire; and, as they drew near the appointed inn where Mr. Bennet’s carriage was to meet them, they quickly perceived, in token of the coachman’s punctuality, both Kitty and Lydia looking out of a dining-room up stairs. These two girls had been above an hour in the place, happily employed in visiting an opposite milliner, watching the sentinel on guard, and dressing a salad and cucumber.” – Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 13

After welcoming their sisters, the girls triumphantly displayed a table set out with such cold meat as an inn larder usually offers, exclaiming, “Is not this nice? Is not this an agreeable surprise?” Elizabeth and Jane remained calm and collected, and murmured approval in the appropriate way. Silently Lizzie (and we readers) thought Lydia and Kitty the silliest of chits.

The Dashwood women took a public coach out of necessity after vacating Norland Park with just enough funds to live as gentlewomen in a cottage provided generously by Mrs Jenkins, a relative stranger to them.

seeing-barton-cottage

The above image depicts the Dashwood women leaving the carriage and seeing Barton Cottage for the first time. Notice the luggage strapped on top of the conveyance. Their furniture, cutlery, tableware, linens and the like would most likely be delivered in a humble wagon by a male servant before or after the move. Servants were often sent ahead of time to ready the new dwelling or they might travel at the same time in a different carriage or wagon. 

Passengers sitting inside a crowded carriage carried their possessions on their laps or between their feet, especially those unfortunate enough to sit in the middle. Those sitting on top were subject to the elements, come rain or snow.

2. In the center of the print is a post chaise that is often a private carriage. It could seat from two to three passengers and was guided by a postillion astride one of two or four horses. A trunk placed in the front of the carriage and behind the horses was just big enough to carry personal effects. This private carriage was more expensive to hire than a public coach, for the vehicle’s speed was highly prized, especially by couples who eloped to Gretna Green.

3. The vehicle to the left is a humble cart pulled by a pony or donkey. Austen’s donkey carriage, also known as a donkey cart, looks elegant in comparison. (See image in link.) After a cold spell in January of 1817, Jane wrote:

‘our Donkeys are necessarily having so long a run of luxurious idleness that I suppose we shall find that they have forgotten much of their Education when we use them again.’

Austen used the vehicle for local shopping runs to Alton. The vehicle depicted by Rowlandson provided little space for purchased goods. These carts were serviceable for moving a few possessions to a location not far away and for individuals who could make frequent back and forth trips. Austen drove her cart at the breakneck speed of 4 mph in her travels to Alton, a trip that took 20 minutes one way.  

Along the road:

Before the railroads were built, beasts of burden were the “engines” used for transport on land and along man-made canals. They included horses, oxen, mules, and donkeys. Small carts were often pulled by goats or large dogs. As mentioned before, all needed food, water, shelter, and rest, an expense that poor owners could barely afford. Animals who did not receive these basic necessities, lived shortened lives. Often a beast of burden’s reward after years of service was either a trip to the knacker after it died or to a farmer to labor until they dropped from exhaustion. 

Thomas_Rowlandson_-_A_Dead_Horse_on_a_Knacker's_Cart_-_Google_Art_Project

A Dead Horse on a Knacker’s Cart. Thomas Rowlandson, Wikipedia

Even with the help of beasts of burden, moving heavy furniture and a large quantity of personal possessions was no small feat. The pace of travel was slow and often laborious. Before roads were macadamized in the early 19th century, they were in poor condition. After heavy rains, deep ruts and mud slowed vehicles down. Winter snow and ice presented additional hazards. Animals as well as passengers and drivers suffered the most in these harsh elements. 

Working animals’ lives were even more drastically reduced from their exertions of pulling heavy wagons and over loaded carriages. Mail coaches during Austen’s day were the fastest means of land transportation. A faster speed was achieved by driving the horses at top speed and changing the teams every 12 to 15 miles or about every 2 hours. These horses, urged to attain maximum speed at whatever cost, had drastically shortened working lives and lifespans.

The images below show the challenges of moving heavy wagons in snow and mud. Click on the images to enlarge.

The liverpool mail near St Albans – Robert Havell (click the link to see image, which is copyrighted. Horses are stopped with its leader fallen.)

Types of vehicles and those who used them:

Travel for the upper classes:

Income determined the conveyance in which an individual or family moved and how many household goods could be transported over a certain distance. Aristocrats and rich landowners, like Mr Darcy, experienced few impediments. The rising middle classes could also choose more comfortable and efficient means of travel. One can imagine that Mr Bingley arrived at a fully furnished Netherfield Park, having sent trusted representatives and servants ahead of time to see to the details of moving personal belongings, and hiring competent locals to perform additional labor. Keep in mind that the upper crust travelled in style, while servants, aside from valets and ladies maids, accompanied their masters’ possessions in less desirable transportation.

  • For more visual references regarding carriages for the upper classes, Deborah Barnum of Jane Austen in Vermont offers valuable posts on the topic. Click on this link: IV of a series.  

Landless gentry and aspiring social climbers make do with less elegant equipages: 

Mrs Elton, a ridiculous character in Austen’s splendid novel, Emma, assumes that her social position in Highbury is equal to Emma’s. Austen has fun with the character, who utters one absurd opinion after another. She piggy backs onto her sister’s wealth by bragging about that woman’s elegant carriage, while expressing a desire to Mr Knightley to have a donkey. He wryly suggests that she could borrow Mrs Cole’s animal, implying she could save herself the money. In reality, the Eltons must make do with what they have.

crofts curricle

Crofts arrive in a gig, Persuasion 1995. Gigs were not associated with the rich, and the Crofts drove theirs for local excursions only.

“She and her husband are provided with an unexceptionable carriage and horses that suffice for their needs, though of course they cannot be compared with her wealthy sister’s equipage, a barouche-landau….” – Diana Birchall quote in writer Sarah Elmsley‘s splendid blog.

Mr Elton, a mere vicar, served parishioners at a lower social scale than Rev Austen. While Elton received a salary and a rent-free a house, he received no tithes, which limited his income and necessitated his finding a wife with resources. He overstepped his ambition by wooing Emma Woodhouse, but settled for Augusta Elton, whose connections are murky. His marriage to Augusta increased the readers’ enjoyment of the couple’s absurdities.

Austen’s father, Rev George Austen, enjoyed an income from a variety of sources, including a 10% tithe from parishioners from two parishes who could afford to pay the amount. He also oversaw a glebe land, which he farmed. This combined income should have served him well, but his large family necessitated that he and Mrs Austen run a boy’s boarding school for profit inside Steventon Rectory. When George retired, his son James inherited his living and the house the family once occupied, but Rev Austen retained the income from the tithes of the parishes he once served. When he died, this income ceased, plunging the Austen women into financial difficulties, which resulted in their continual quest to find more affordable lodgings — until Edward Austen Knight offered Chawton Cottage to them. This last move resulted in Jane Austen’s glorious creative period in which she published five novels during her lifetime.

Rev Austen and his family moved to Bath in 1801, with only the possessions that would fit into their new home. He no longer had his extensive library or the use of a horse and carriage. The family’s many servants were reduced to a cook, manservant, and one or two maids, depending on the family’s needs. Like other families in their economic situation, they used hired carriages, such as hackney coaches, or public coaches to reach destinations beyond walking distance. During the family’s move to Bath, the goods and possessions they could not physically take with them were most likely transported by a manservant in a wagon.

Hackney Coach 1800

Hackney Coach 1800

The 60-mile journey from Steventon to Bath took one day. A rest for the horses at an inn or hotel like the Petty France was a necessity. The following quote from Dean Cantrell describes Catherine Morland’s journey from Bath to Northanger Abbey. The Austen family must have also shared the same feelings: 

“Both carriages stop at Petty France, exactly half the thirty-mile distance from Bath to the General’s Abbey.  Catherine laments “the tediousness of a two hours’ bait” that permits “nothing to be done but to eat without being hungry, and loiter about without any thing to see” (NA, 156).  She clearly understands that it is the chaise with its “heavy and troublesome business” that requires a two-hour halt for the horses to be fed and refreshed…Fifteen miles from Bath, Petty France would have been a likely coach stop in 1801 and 1806 for Jane Austen.” – Yes, There is a Petty France, Dean Cantrell, Persuasions, 1987

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Petty France Hotel

A sixty mile journey must have been exhausting in a public conveyance. View more images of public transportation in this Jane Austen in Vermont, post number III

People from humbler walks of life and their forms of transport:

Three Rowlandson images of a flying wagon speak volumes on how people with modest means traveled and transported their goods in wagons that look remarkably like the Conestoga wagons colonists drove across America. 

A flying wagon Rowlandson

Rowlandson, Flying Wagon, MET Museum, public domain, 1816

This Kendal Flying Machine, a wagon, is parked outside of an inn. A woman climbs up a ladder into the wagon. Three men stand at right. In Mr. Rowlandson’s England, Robert Southey described the laboriously slow progress of a flying wagon:

The English mode of travelling is excellently adapted for every thing, except for seeing the country…We met a stage-waggon, the vehicle in which baggage is transported, I could not imagine what this could be; a huge carriage upon four wheels of prodigious breadth, very wide and very long, and arched over with a cloth like a bower, at a considerable height: this monstrous machine was drawn by six large horses, whose neck-bells were heard far off as they approached; the carrier walked beside them, with a long whip upon his shoulder…these waggons are day and night upon their way, and are oddly enough called flying waggons, though of all machines they travel the slowest, slower than even a travelling funeral.” – P 23   

 

From Southey’s description and depiction of the flying wagon in the first Rowlandson image, one can see the differences in size and the numbers of people and the size of the loads each of these wagons could carry. Rowlandson’s first image of a flying waggon depicted a much smaller vehicle than the one shown in the rendering on P 23, which was drawn by six horses.

The detail below of an 1806 Dutch etching from The Rijksmuseum shows a cart laden with furniture moving through a small village. A man walking in front seems to be carrying baskets with items inside.

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As in the illustration above, affordable modes of transportation of two- or four-wheel uncovered wagons, were used by humbler people who could afford them. Examples are included in the slide show below. Notice that some images are current, since the mode of moving goods among the poor has changed little over the centuries. 

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pack_horses

Detail of pack horses.

Very poor or itinerants who moved from place to place often walked, carried their personal goods in sacks, pushed them in wheelbarrows or hand carts, rode pack horses, or caught a ride by a kind stranger.

Rivers and inland waterways:

Overland transportation was not the only route people took to move to a new location. England’s streams and rivers had long been a fast, efficient means of travel.

Steam locomotives arrived 3 years before Jane Austen’s death. Before this time, transport via inland waterways and rivers provided a more comfortable and, in many instances, a faster way to move items. Ferries took people and wagons across river crossings.

A surge in canals building occurred in England in the second half of the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century these canals helped the expansion of the English Industrial Revolution. In Jane Austen’s day, most developers still struggled to make a profit building canals. Once they were introduced to connect city to city and routes within cities, these canals became an important source of transporting goods within England and were more profitable.

Horse_Drawing_Barge_on_the_Kennet_and_Avon_Canal

Horse drawing from a towpath on the Kennet and Avon Canal, England, Wikipedia

“A horse, towing a boat with a rope from the towpath, could pull fifty times as much cargo as it could pull in a cart or wagon on roads. In the early days of the Canal Age, from about 1740, all boats and barges were towed by horse, mule, hinny, pony or sometimes a pair of donkeys.” Wikipedia, Horse-drawn boat

Importantly, ferries, canal boats, and barges carried heavier loads: they also provided accessibility and affordability to a variety of people from different classes. 

Seaside ports:

Another popular means of transportation in England, an island nation, was via ships that sailed along and around its coastlines to various coastal ports and into major cities. 

Havell, A View of London Bridge and Custom House_-_B1977.14.18472_-_Yale_Center_for_British_Art

A View of London Bridge and Custom House, Robert Havell, Sr., Yale Center for British Art

Additional information on the topic:

By Brenda S. Cox

“Yesterday came a letter to my mother from Edward Cooper to announce, not the birth of a child, but of a living; for Mrs. Leigh has begged his acceptance of the Rectory of Hamstall-Ridware in Staffordshire, vacant by Mr. Johnson’s death. We collect from his letter that he means to reside there, in which he shows his wisdom. Staffordshire is a good way off . . .”—Jane Austen to Cassandra, Jan. 21, 1799

In 1806, Jane Austen and her family made a trip to visit their relatives in the north. They spent five weeks with her first cousin Edward Cooper, rector of Hamstall Ridware (whom I wrote about earlier). They stayed in his rectory, and must have attended the adjacent Church of St. Michael and All Angels and heard Edward Cooper preach there. The church is still much as Austen knew it, inside and out.

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Hamstall Ridware, where Jane Austen visited for several weeks in 1806. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Hamstall Ridware History

Hamstall Ridware means “homestead,” or “place of the house,” by the “river ford.” It is on the River Blithe. The first word is Anglo-Saxon, the second is Celtic, indicating that the two people groups may have both been living in the area at the time it was named. Three other towns with the name Ridware (Pipe Ridware, Hill Ridware, and Mavesyn Ridware) are nearby.

The de Ridware family were the medieval “lords of the manor” for the area. The church was built, in the Norman style, around 1120 A.D, and expanded in the 14th and 15th centuries.

In the 1370s, the de Ridwares had no male heir, so the land passed to the Cotton family. A Cotton family tomb, from the time of King Henry VIII, still stands in the church. Each shield on the sides commemorates one of the children of John and Joanna Cotton. Half of each shield is their family crest, an eagle on a blue background. For the sons, the other half represents their profession. For the daughters, the other half shows the shield of their husband’s family.

This tomb from the time of King Henry VIII represents all the children of the Cotton family, the lords of the manor at the time. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

In the 1500s, the Cottons had no male heir, so the manor, Hamstall Hall, and the lands, passed to Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, the husband of the eldest daughter. 

In 1601 the estate went to Sir Thomas Leigh of Stoneleigh, one of Jane Austen’s forebears. This early stained glass window, incorporating 14th century glass, commemorates all these patrons of the Hamstall Ridware church. Each family would have owned the advowson for the Hamstall Ridware church, the right to choose the rector of the church when the previous one died.

Stained glass window in Hamstall Ridware church. This window shows coats of arms of the families who have owned the manor and land of Hamstall Ridware: the de Ridwares of Hamstall on the upper right, the Cotton de Ridwares on the upper left, the Fitzherberts on the lower left, and the Leighs on the lower right. Alice Cotton, wife of Richard Cotton, appears near the top of the middle panel. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

The Leighs’ main home was at Stoneleigh Abbey (which we’ll “visit” later). The Hon. Mary Leigh of Stoneleigh Abbey was patroness of Hamstall Ridware in 1799.  When the previous rector, Mr. Johnson, died, she gave the living to her relative Edward Cooper. Before that he had been a curate, an assistant or substitute clergyman, probably with a low salary, at Harpsden. Jane and her family had visited the Coopers at Harpsden in August and September of 1799, before the Coopers moved to Hamstall Ridware in October. Edward invited them to visit Hamstall Ridware in 1801, but Jane said in a letter that they preferred to go to the seaside that summer. However, five years later, the Austens did make a long trip to visit their Leigh relations at Adlestrop, then accompanied their cousin, Rev. Thomas Leigh, who had just inherited Stoneleigh Abbey, to the abbey. From Stoneleigh they went to Hamstall Ridware, 38 miles away.

During this time, it’s possible that Jane may have seen the play Lover’s Vows, an important part of Mansfield Park. It was advertised in a village called Cheadle about an hour’s carriage ride away (Gaye King, “Visiting”).

Unfortunately, during Jane’s visit, Edward’s eight children came down with whooping cough, and Jane got it a few weeks later, after she got home (Letters, Jan. 7, 1807).

Displays in the church commemorate Jane Austen, her visit to Hamstall Ridware, the history of the church, and the Leigh family’s connections to the area. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023
The church history board gives fascinating tidbits. For example, the parish register for 1715 lists the death of rector Thomas Allestree, M.A., and the induction of a new rector, Gorstelowe Monck, A.M. (same as M.A., Master of Arts); 7 baptisms (presumably of babies); 5 marriages including two to widows, and two others by license, both with one spouse from another parish; 7 burials, including Rev. Allestree (age 77) in July, his widow in December, and two babies buried shortly after their baptisms. An adjacent news article about Rev. Allestree says he wrote and memorized 500 sermons, and preached them a total of 5,000 times! Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

The Rectory

The rectory (or parsonage, the house provided for the rector of the parish) where the Austens stayed is now a private home. It is now difficult to see even from the outside, but this photo shows the building before a gate was built.

The Hamstall Ridware rectory, before gates were installed. Jane Austen and her family stayed here for five weeks in 1806 with Jane’s cousin Edward Cooper. Photo © Jack Barber, 2017, used by permission.

It has been speculated that this rectory was the pattern for the Delaford rectory, where Edward and Elinor Ferrars settle in Sense and Sensibility. The layout of the Delaford estate, with “stew-ponds” (fish ponds), “a very pretty canal” (perhaps suggested by the nearby river), and “great garden walls,” also corresponds to some features of the Leighs’ estate at Hamstall Ridware.

Gaye King wrote,

“Edward had found the rectory quite large enough to accommodate his growing family. Like the fictional parsonage at Delaford it had ‘five sitting-rooms on the ground floor, and … could make up fifteen beds’ (292). So the young rector could look forward to maintaining the tradition of liberal hospitality such as that he had enjoyed at the Steventon parsonage. When Jane Austen, together with her mother and sister, did eventually spend those five weeks at Hamstall Ridware in 1806 Edward and Caroline had eight children. There were also, living in at the rectory, two maids and a governess, yet there was still ample accommodation for the guests.”

(I have since noticed that the five sitting rooms and fifteen beds were characteristics of the manor house where Col. Brandon lived, not of the parsonage! And I doubt a country parsonage would have so many sitting rooms.)

However, relatives who visited wrote that it was “a beautifully situated parsonage house on a considerable eminence, back’d with fine woods, seen at a distance from the road to this happy village,” and that the church “was a very neat old Spire Building of stone, having two side Ailes [sic] Chancel &c. and makes a magnificent appearance as a Village Church” (quoted in Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen: A Family Record, 157).

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Hamstall Ridware

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Hamstall Ridware, where Jane Austen’s cousin Edward Cooper was rector from 1799-1833. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

The church is large, seating 200 people, almost three times the size of Jane’s church at Steventon (which seats about 75). It has a long central aisle leading to the chancel, where the altar sits, and two side aisles. Lining both sides is a clerestory, high walls with a series of windows which let in natural light.

Central aisle of the Hamstall Ridware church. Photo courtesy of Hamstall Ridware PCC, used by permission.
Unusually, the upper section of the church has clerestory windows down the whole length of the church, lighting up the whole interior. The aisle roofs are “moulded ridge pieces and tie beams.” Photo courtesy of Hamstall Ridware PCC, used by permission.
Late 15th century chapel screen on a side aisle. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Like many churches in England before the Reformation, this church once had a rood screen separating the chancel from the nave. This was a barrier between the chancel, where the clergy celebrated mass at the altar, and the lay people worshiping in the nave. It was usually topped by a cross; the Anglo-Saxon word for cross is rood. Some churches also had a rood loft, above the screen, from which a choir would sing parts of the service. Many rood screens and lofts were destroyed during or after the Reformation, to symbolize people’s more direct access to God.

A few steps, which once led to the rood loft, still remain in one wall. Two paintings from the rood screen are now behind the main altar in a reredos (reer-ih-dahss is one pronunciation). This means a decorative panel behind the altar. These paintings are from the late 15th century, by an unknown accomplished artist, probably local.

The reredos behind the altar includes two 15th century paintings from the rood screen of the church, which was destroyed during the Reformation. The one on the left is apparently unique in England. It shows times when Christ’s blood was shed: “the circumcision, the agony in the garden, the scourging, the crown of thorns and the crucifixion,” according to the church booklet. “The right-hand panel shows the procession of the cross with St. Mary Magdalene kneeling in front of it. Both panels have been heavily scratched and scored. This was probably done at the time of the Civil War [1642-1651], when everything that had Roman Catholic associations was defaced.” Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Memorials to the Cooper Family

Edward Cooper and his family left their mark on the church. The memorial to Edward Cooper says:

In a vault near this spot, are deposited the remains of the Rev. EDWARD COOPER, who, for upwards of 30 years was rector of this parish, and for many years of the adjoining parish of Yoxall also: in both which places, (as a faithful minister of Christ, and endeared to all his parishioners,) he discharged, with unremitting zeal, the duties of his sacred office.

He was the only son of the Rev. Edward Cooper, L.L.D. vicar of Sonning Berks, &c. and prebendary of Bath and Wells; and of Jane his wife, grandaughter of Theophilus Leigh, Esq., of Addlestrop, in the county of Gloucester,

He was formerly fellow of All-Souls’ College, Oxford, as was his father also.

He departed this life, the 26th day of February, 1833, in the 63rd year of his age.

“He being dead yet speaketh”

Within the same vault also repose the remains of CAROLINE ISABELLA, his widow, only daughter of Philip Lybbe Powys, Esq. of Hardwick House in the county of Oxford,

She died on the 28th day of August, 1838, in the 63rd year of her age.

This tablet is erected by their eight surviving children, as a tribute of grateful affection, and respect, to the memory of their deeply lamented, and much beloved parents.

Memorial in Hamstall Ridware church to Edward Cooper, rector. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

As the memorial notes, Edward was also rector of a neighboring parish, Yoxall (from 1809). Like George Austen, he needed the income from two small parishes and was able to serve them both since they were close. Rev. Thomas Gisborne, another Evangelical minister, was from Yoxall. He wrote a book that Cassandra and Jane both liked, An Enquiry into the Duties of the Female Sex (letter of Aug. 30, 1805). Perhaps Edward had recommended it to them. Though we have no record of it, it’s possible Jane could have met Gisborne during her visit. He was a friend of Edward’s, and he and Henry Austen were the godfathers of one of Edward’s sons. Gisborne was also involved with Wilberforce in fighting the slave trade. (Gaye King, “Cousin” article)

On another wall is a memorial to Edward’s son and grandson. His youngest son Warren died in 1844, age 39, and Warren’s son, Edward-Warren, died as an infant in 1840.

Hamstall Ridware memorial to Edward Cooper’s son and grandson. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Outside, under a large cross, are the graves of Edward’s third son, Rev. H. C. Cooper, vicar of Barton-under-Needwood (5.6 miles away), who died in 1876, “in the 76th year of his age.” Also Edward’s second daughter, Cassandra Louisa, who died in 1880, “in the 84th year of her age.” The final inscription reads, “Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude, v. 21”

Another side memorializes Frederic Leigh Cooper, born 1801, died 1885. This was Edward’s fifth child

This cross identifies the burial site of several of Edward Cooper’s children in the Hamstall Ridware church burial ground. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023
Side view of cross with inscription to another son. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Glebe

Green fields surround the church. Most churches in England had glebe land, farmland that provided income for the clergyman. In 1978, all glebe land was transferred to the dioceses, who administer it now. (A diocese is a group of church parishes overseen by a bishop.) Some modern locations in England still retain the name glebe. Hamstall Ridware is part of the Diocese of Lichfield, and I was told the diocese still receives income from grazing on glebe lands nearby. Glebe income today is used to pay clergy salaries and other expenses.

The Hamstall Ridware church is in the midst of green fields, some of which still provide income to the Church of England today. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

The Church Today

The Hamstall Ridware church is now part of a benefice including four parishes with one rector. In 1831, the population of the parish was 443. In 2011 it was 313.

Hamstall Hall, previous home of the Leigh family, is now mostly in ruins. But, according to the church booklet, the current Lord Leigh is still “a patron of the United Benefice of King’s Bromley, the Ridwares, and Yoxall jointly with the Bishop of Lichfield and the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral.” (In other words, they jointly choose/approve the clergymen for the churches of the benefice.) 

Like Chawton and Steventon, Sunday services are held at the Hamstall Ridware church weekly, usually with only ten or so faithful parishioners attending. The church is large, seating 200 people, but it has little heating, and only a chemical toilet outside. However, they do get big crowds for Harvest, Christmas, and other special services, as well as lectures and concerts. And many visitors come to the church, which is open in the daytime, though apparently the door can be tricky to open.

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels is well worth a visit for Jane Austen enthusiasts. It is just over an hour’s drive, by car, from Stoneleigh Abbey. The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum in Lichfield is on the way.

The people of the church created a tapestry depicting Hamstall Ridware through 900 years of history. Jane Austen’s face is prominent on the right side. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

For Further Exploration

This post from the Ridware Historic Society includes diary entries from Edward’s mother-in-law, during her visits to the family at Hamstall Ridware, as well as more information about the town and its people.

The church website gives some history and a schedule of services.

The historic listing tells more details of the church’s architecture.

A video showing many aspects of the church

Booklet on the church (a slightly older version than the one I used for this article)  

Photos on Flickr of Hamstall Hall, Hamstall Ridware church and Yoxall church  

Gaye King “Jane Austen’s Staffordshire Cousin: Edward Cooper and His Circle,” Persuasions 1993

Gaye King, “Visiting Edward Cooper,” Persuasions 1987

Donald Greene article, “Hamstall Ridware: A Neglected Austen Setting,” Persuasions 1985 

Posts on other Jane Austen Family Churches

Steventon

Chawton

Adlestrop and the Leigh Family

Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel

Great Bookham and Austen’s godfather, Rev. Samuel Cooke

Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.

Letterlocking was a method used by European societies between the 15th – 18th centuries to keep messages private.  Ancient human societies found other techniques to protect their messages through the use of seals, or, as in the case of Ancient Mesopotamia, cylinder seals that were unique to each owner. These were eventually replaced with stamp seals, some of which are still used today in the form of signet rings.

Today I seek other ways to keep my public affairs private. Passwords for my online correspondence and purchases are changed frequently, and I make sure to have a secure two-step process for accessing the information along with a back up plan.

During Jane Austen’s lifetime, envelopes were not yet used. The extra weight made the expense of sending or receiving letters more expensive. Therefore, the paper was carefully folded. Often the lines were crossed, as shown in an article from this blog.  Images of Austen’s surviving letters demonstrate the method by which she folded them, as described by Jane Austen’s House .

The letter was written across the first three pages and the top and bottom thirds of the fourth page, leaving its middle third blank. With the first page uppermost, the bottom third of the letter was then folded upwards and the top third folded down so that the edges met in the middle. Then, holding the letter lengthways, the left-hand and right-hand sides were tucked inside each other. The packet was sealed with wax and the address written on the blank reverse. –  Room 5: How to Write and Fold a Letter, Jane Austen’s House

One method of letterlocking is shown in the YouTube video below.

Letterlocking is the art of using specific folds and cuts in flexible paper to seal it shut for document security. Because paper was not always as common as it is today, it was much more expensive, which led to minimizing the use of paper as much as possible. At this point in history, envelopes would have been seen as excess cost, an issue that was quickly solved with letterlocking.” — Securing Ancient Secrets: The Fascinating History of Letterlocking, Ancient Origins

In a BBC article (see link below), Richard Fisher described the historic research that uncovered the secrets to letterlocking in the early 2000’s. Conservator Jana Dambrogio was the first woman allowed to work in the Vatican Secret Archives when she found a cache of documents and noticed cuts, creases and folds in the paper. Thinking they were evidence of letterlocking, she scientifically described what she observed.

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She and a colleague, Starza Smith, searched for more letterlocking samples, which they often found in old archives and museum collections. Recently they discovered a trunk containing 2,600 letters from 17th-Century Europe, of which 577 were unopened. This trove provided details of European life during the 1600s.

As a final act before her execution, Mary Queen of Scots sealed a letter she wrote to her brother-in-law with a spiral lock. He would have known her message had been intercepted if that seal arrived broken. The irony would not have been lost on a juvenile Austen, whose “History of England” included a memorable passage about the doomed queen.

Over the last few months, we’ve explored timeless romantic themes in Jane Austen’s novels that are still frequently used in today’s popular books, movies, and television shows. Thus far, we’ve covered the following themes in this series: “Enemies to Lovers” in Pride and Prejudice, the “Slow Burn” Romance in Emma“Best Friends to Lovers” in Mansfield Park“Second-Chance” Love in Persuasion, and “The Meet-Cute” in Northanger Abbey.

Last but certainly not least, this brings us to Sense and Sensibility and one of Austen’s most mature and intricate plots. Sense and Sensibility is unique in that it contains two main love stories with its sister-heroines, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. Though Elinor is the main protagonist of the novel, Marianne’s romantic life is often front-and-center with its high drama and plot impact.

Love Triangles

In the world of storytelling, love triangles provide a potent plot device. There’s the age-old King Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot story that’s been told again and again; the love triangle/identity mix-up in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night; and the explosive Heathcliff-Cathy-Edgar triangle in Wuthering Heights. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. We could add dozens of other famous triangular love stories to this list.

In Sense and Sensibility, Austen provides her readers with not one, but two separate love triangles to untangle between Elinor-Edward-Lucy Steele and Marianne-Willoughby-Colonel Brandon.

In each of these triangles, there is one “wrong” person standing in the way of true love with Mr./Ms. Right. For Colonel Brandon, Willoughby takes the spotlight and all of Marianne’s attention. For Elinor, Lucy stands in the way of her happiness with Edward, due to an unfortunate youthful promise made by Edward.

Falling for Mr./Ms. Wrong, Finding Mr./Ms. Right

In both of these love triangles, a character falls for Mr./Ms. Wrong first and later finds Mr./Ms. Right. Elinor and Colonel Brandon both wait in the wings and watch to see if Edward and Marianne will break free from their previous attachments. They both must wait and wonder; they both feel the pain and angst of separation; and they both know that they may never find their personal happy ending.

The only difference is, Edward and Elinor have a mutual attachment to one another, while Marianne does not develop romantic feelings toward Colonel Brandon until far later in the novel. She thinks he’s far too old for romance and “thirty-five has nothing to do with matrimony”:

Colonel Brandon is certainly younger than Mrs. Jennings, but he is old enough to be my father; and if he were ever animated enough to be in love, must have long outlived every sensation of the kind. It is too ridiculous! When is a man to be safe from such wit, if age and infirmity will not protect him?

Sense and Sensibility

Thus, Colonel Brandon must wait in the wings, ever true and ever patient, caring deeply for Marianne and wanting the best for her, even if it means watching her break her heart and health over Willoughby.

Mr. Wrong: The Problem with Willoughby

As in life, Jane Austen’s characters often have to fall for Mr./Ms. Wrong before they can appreciate Mr./Ms. Right. In some of her novels, she even uses a “red herring” to keep her readers distracted (Frank Churchill is one such example). In Sense and Sensibility, Marianne Dashwood falls for a young, dashing, handsome, attractive man who appears to be everything she’s ever hoped for in a man.

To make matters even more exciting, their “meet-cute” involves an intoxicating rescue scene where Willoughby lifts Marianne and carries her home after she falls down and is hurt. How could a young lady, especially a young romantic woman like Marianne, not fall for a strong, handsome man who literally sweeps her off her feet and carries her through the rain to safety.

The problem is, no matter how dashing, friendly, attractive, romantic, or exciting Willoughby might appear, he is not who he seems. As we later find out from Colonel Brandon, Willoughby has a checkered past and has impregnated (at least) one young woman out of wedlock, without taking any responsibility for her care, sufficiently ruining her reputation and her chances (in that time/culture) of a happy future.

But, you might ask, how could anyone have known, since the fate of Colonel Brandon’s ward was unknown to any of the Dashwoods until much later? Though no one could believe just how bad he is, Austen does provide clues about Willoughby’s character through her descriptions of his conduct. He frequently crosses lines of propriety (usually a red flag in Austen’s novels) and makes himself far too cozy and familiar with Marianne without making any firm promises.

Today, dozens of movies and books follow a similar script. We often see characters like Mr. Willoughby, Mr. Wickham, and Mr. Crawford who are just a little bit too handsome, too dashing, and too perfect to actually be Mr. Right.

Ms. Wrong: The Problem with Lucy Steele

The problem with Lucy Steele is more a matter of youthful ignorance and inexperience. Edward Ferrars is captivated by Lucy’s beauty and, due in part to forced proximity, experiences young love and makes a commitment to someone who does not match his personality, intelligence, values, or interests in life. Austen describes her as “illiterate, artful, and selfish” – certainly no match for a thoughtful, principled man like Edward.

Not surprisingly, he soon regrets committing himself to a woman like Lucy:

The youthful infatuation of nineteen would naturally blind him to every thing but her beauty and good nature; but the four succeeding years—years, which if rationally spent, give such improvement to the understanding, must have opened his eyes to her defects of education, while the same period of time, spent on her side in inferior society and more frivolous pursuits, had perhaps robbed her of that simplicity which might once have given an interesting character to her beauty.

Sense and Sensibility

And while Lucy at first only appears to be an ignorant, vapid girl without much sense, we quickly realize she is far less sweet and far more dangerous than meets the eye. She’s not in love with Edward; she merely sees him as a “way up.” We later find out that she’s a conniving “gold digger” (to use today’s terms) who is looking for any way to climb the social ladder and make the best match she can, regardless of who she hurts or what anyone thinks.

This type of female red herring shows up in many popular romantic movies and books today as well. However, in many of today’s plot lines, this type of female character tends to be some kind of shark in the business world who cares more about appearances and getting ahead than building a loving relationship and happy life with the handsome main character.

Finding Mr. (Colonel) Right

Marianne must go through heartache before she can appreciate or fall in love with Colonel Brandon. He watches and waits, hoping against hope, until she begins to blossom and heal from her broken heart. His steadiness, thoughtfulness, and gentlemanlike manner is a welcome change from the high drama and passion of her first attachment, and soon an attachment forms:

Instead of falling a sacrifice to an irresistible passion, as once she had fondly flattered herself with expecting,—instead of remaining even for ever with her mother, and finding her only pleasures in retirement and study, as afterwards in her more calm and sober judgment she had determined on,—she found herself at nineteen, submitting to new attachments, entering on new duties, placed in a new home, a wife, the mistress of a family, and the patroness of a village.

Colonel Brandon was now as happy, as all those who best loved him, believed he deserved to be;—in Marianne he was consoled for every past affliction;—her regard and her society restored his mind to animation, and his spirits to cheerfulness; and that Marianne found her own happiness in forming his, was equally the persuasion and delight of each observing friend. Marianne could never love by halves; and her whole heart became, in time, as much devoted to her husband, as it had once been to Willoughby.

Sense and Sensibility

In today’s popular movies and books, a character like Colonel Brandon is sometimes the childhood best friend or the nerdy next door neighbor that suddenly turns handsome. It’s usually a matter of the main character being blinded at first by a passionate but unhealthy relationship and then “coming to their senses” and noticing the quality person that’s been there all along.

As far as the age-gap between Brandon and Marianne (which was quite common during Austen’s day and culture), many of today’s romantic storylines, such as As Good as It Gets, Crazy Heart, and Autumn in New York, feature a May-December romance.

Finding Ms. Right

From the moment they meet, it’s clear that Elinor and Edward are perfect for one another in every way. For Edward, once he meets a woman of Elinor’s caliber, there is no question that she is far superior to Lucy Steele.

However, Edward is a man of his word and refuses to do wrong by Lucy Steele. This honorable choice only serves to make Edward more attractive, even though Elinor is pained deeply by the knowledge that he must marry an ignorant woman he does not love. Like Brandon, Elinor waits patiently, enduring much pain, until Edward is finally set free.

Dozens of movies and televisions shows use this type of plot line where the main character must come to the realization that their current relationship is all wrong and someone else is a much better fit. Sweet Home Alabama is one mainstream movie example of this type of love affair.

Love Triangles in Popular Media

More romantic comedies feature a love triangle of some kind in today’s world of romantic writing.

The following are some popular movies (and/or books) with this theme: Pretty in Pink, While You Were Sleeping, The Notebook, Beauty and the Beast, Spider-Man, The Hunger Games, Titanic, Twilight (Team Edward v. Team Jacob), My Best Friend’s Wedding, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Sabrina, Reality Bites, Gone with the Wind, Something Borrowed, Pearl Harbor, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Princess Bride.

Some well-known television love triangles include: Dawson’s Creek, Friends, Gilmore Girls, The Office, Beverly Hills 90210, Sex & The City, How I Met Your Mother, Felicity, Outlander, The Summer I Turned Pretty, Never Have I Ever, Friday Night Lights, Lost, and Grey’s Anatomy.

Though none of these shows or movies holds a candle to Austen’s writing, it’s clear that love triangles and plot twists about finding and/or waiting for Mr./Ms. Right continue to keep audiences coming back for more.

Happily Ever After

In the end, everyone lives happily ever after. (Except, of course, those characters whom Austen deems foolish or undeserving of true happiness.) As always, Austen provides her reader’s with a satisfying ending: “Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery. I quit such odious subjects as soon as I can, impatient to restore everybody not greatly in fault themselves to tolerable comfort, and to have done with all the rest.”

As we close this pop culture series on Jane Austen and Rom Coms, I’d love to know which couples and romantic themes are your favorite(s) in her novels!


RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women DevotionalThe Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Now Available: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

Jane Austen’s relationship with music, especially her private morning sessions on the piano forte before her family arose, was as creatively important to her as her writing. Digitized versions of the Jane Austen Music Books are stored on the Southampton UK website, where scholars, musicians, and Austen fans can peruse the music that the family liked and deemed important.

“The Austen Family Music Books is a collection of 18 albums of music containing around 600 pieces that belonged to the 19th century writer and her relations.”

Yet even with these troves of treasures, modern audiences are left to wonder:

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This musical score, in Jane Austen’s handwriting, is one of nearly 600 Austen family musical treasures available in an online archive. Jane Austen Museum/Public Domain

“So what kind of music did Jane Austen like to play?

“The line between classical and popular music was very soft in that period,” [Austen scholar Professor Joan] Ray noted. “She lived 1775 to 1817. So she has a lot of popular music but, for example, she had a popular song called ‘William.’ But when music scholars really looked at the 20th and 21st centuries, they discovered it was actually based on Haydn’s Piano Concerto No. 1.”

For as much as Austen loved and collected music, and created characters in her novels who also loved music, she was light on specifics in her novels.” – Discover The Music Jane Austen Loved | Colorado Public Radio

The Colorado Public Radio site provides sample music from movie soundtracks based on Austen’s novels. Interestingly, today’s film composers have only a vague idea of the music Austen specifically liked because of the very few references she made in writing: they had to imagine which music best represented the stories in the time they were written. The 1995 film of Pride and Prejudice used music from Mozart, Haydn, and Schubert: it is still celebrated as one of the best musical scores in an Austen film.

Three Emma film musical scores

The music scorers of following three Emma film adaptations use different approaches to music to tell Austen’s tales of the young, self-important heroine. If you have access to the streaming videos or own the DVDs, you may want to listen to the music and compare how their composers move these plots forward. The scores of each film are suited to the settings and vision of the film director.

  • Emma 1996 with Gwynneth Paltrow: Rachel Portman, the female composer for the musical score, won an academy award.

“One of Rachel’s [Portman’s} most well-known film scores was for Emma (1996). Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, this film is an adaptation of the Jane Austen novel of the same name. A light and playful romantic comedy, the film needed the right music to go with it. As FF2 Contributor Sophia Jin says of Rachel’s score for Emma, “Portman’s music feels joyful and lighthearted. It is warming and brings a sense of calm and peace to the picture.” Rachel won an Academy Award for Best Musical or Comedy Score for Emma, making her the first female composer to win an Academy Award in that category.” – Composer Rachel Portman is a Mastermind of Movie Music, International Swans

YouTube video of 3 musical themes from Emma 1996

  • Emma 2009, with Romola Garai took an earthier musical approach. In this film adaptation, Highbury was depicted as a relatively unsophisticated country town outside of London. Emma danced to rustic music that could easily be played by local musicians. The costumes also had a more earthy, homemade feel.  

Emma 2009: 4 musical themes from the film – YouTube video

  • Emma 2020 mixes folksongs that were popular during Austen’s era, with classical, and modern compositions.

The score fits the beautiful, elegant vision of director Autumn de Wilde, who had only directed music videos before tackling a full length feature film.

As with today’s musical tastes, in Austen’s day the line between classical and popular music was ever shifting. She copied the music of “La Marseillaise”, the French National Anthem, and contemporary tunes and folk music that were popular in her day. The Family Music Books show the family’s preferences, but few references were made in Austen’s letters to the music she practiced daily. In her writings, she mentioned only one classical composer – Johann Baptise Cramer.  The following YouTube video features his Piano Concerto No 5 in C Minor, Opus 48.

Cramer was credited with renaming Beethoven’s final piano concerto the “Emperor”. Beethoven began composing this Concerto in 1809, while Vienna was under invasion from Napoleon’s forces for the second time.

No documentation exists that Austen heard this concerto in person. After moving to Chawton, Austen visited her brother Henry frequently in London to work on the publication of her novels. Before this period she lived in Bath after her father retired from his living in Steventon. In both cities she regularly attended recitals and concerts, and likely had a more sophisticated exposure to contemporary music, especially to the works that arrived in major cities from the European composers. 

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Screen shot of Joan Ray’s talk with Carla Walker, host of the Music Room, CPR Classical, Public Radio

Listen to the full discussion at this CPR https://fb.watch/no42mQ7gfS/  Video

The clue to Austen’s love for music was in her daily practice at the piano forte. Her novels also provided clues. Any young lady in her novels who lived in the upper strata of society learned to play the piano forte and/or harp and could give concerts at home events. As for Austen, her morning practices were private. She did not provide entertainment for others in a public situation as some films have suggested. Instead, Austen took quiet comfort and inspiration from her morning musicals. They added as much to her creativity as her writings.

More background information and suggested readings:

“My father’s old Ministers are already deserting him to pay their court to his Son; the brown Mare, which, as well as the black was to devolve on James at our removal, has not had patience to wait for that, & has settled herself even now at Deane.”—Jane Austen to Cassandra, Jan. 8, 1801, when her brother James was about to take over their father’s place as clergyman at Steventon church (as his father’s curate), and James was taking over much of their property as Jane, Cassandra, and their parents moved to Bath.

Church was an important part of Jane Austen’s life and her family’s lives. Last time we explored the church at Chawton, which Austen attended during the later years of her life. Today we’ll visit Steventon, the church in which she grew up. Both churches are named after St. Nicholas, both are small country churches of the national Church of England, and both are named after St. Nicholas, patron saint of sailors, children, and others. (He is also called, in a more modern incarnation, Santa Claus.)

St. Nicholas’ Church at Steventon, where Jane Austen grew up. Her father was the rector. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023

The Rectory

Jane grew up in the rectory at Steventon, which no longer exists. Her father was the rector, the clergyman of St. Nicholas’. The rectory, or parsonage, was the house provided for the rector to live in.  George Austen made repairs and additions to the rectory as his family grew, and as he began to teach boarding students to supplement his church income.

When Jane’s father died in 1805, her brother James became rector of Steventon. After he died, her brother Henry served temporarily for three years (as Charles Hayter gets a temporary living at the end of Persuasion). Both lived in the rectory while serving the church.

However, that rectory was damp and tended to flood. The Knight family were the patrons of the parish, choosing the rectors for the church (as Colonel Brandon was the patron of his parish, giving a church living to Edward Ferrars). In 1823, Edward Knight’s son William Knight (Jane’s nephew) became rector of Steventon. Edward built a new rectory for his son, opposite the church on higher ground. That building still stands, now a private home called Steventon House (put up for sale in 2023).

Jane Austen’s family home, the old rectory, was demolished in the 1820s. In 2011, excavators found bits and pieces at the site: fragments of pottery and crockery, nails, etc.  An old pump sat on the site for a long time; now you can see part of it inside the church.

Behind a grate in the Steventon church lie various treasures: pieces of the original rectory pump, medieval tiles, and metal pattens worn by ladies like Austen to lift their feet out of the mud. The teacup is from the Steventon Methodist Church, built after Austen’s time. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023 (Screen partially funded by JASNA, Ohio North Coast region)

The church itself is still standing and, in form at least, is mostly as Jane Austen knew it. She and her family worshiped there most Sundays for the first twenty-five years of her life. They likely attended church on Sunday afternoons or evenings as well as mornings. Services were several hours long, so Jane spent quite a bit of time at that church.

History of St. Nicholas’ Church, Steventon

Steventon was apparently a place of Christian worship from a very early date. Part of the shaft of a Saxon Cross, from about the ninth century, was discovered built into the wall of a nearby Tudor manor (now demolished). The cross shaft is displayed in the church.  The cross was likely set up outdoors. Visiting priests would hold services there, before the church was built. Villagers may also have buried their dead near the cross.  Steventon was possibly a stop on the Salisbury to Canterbury pilgrimage route.

Part of an ancient Saxon Cross, around which traveling priests would lead the villagers of Steventon in Christian worship. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023

The church building is medieval, built around 1200 A.D. The most obvious change since Jane Austen’s time is the addition of a Victorian steeple (around 1850-1860), a blue and brown structure that looks quite different from the rest.

Jane would have seen the four ancient “scratch dials” or “Mass clocks” on the outside walls of the church. These were sundials with a scratch marking the time when people were to come to worship. She would have also seen the medieval carvings of faces, a man and a woman, on either side of the main door.

Sundial scratched on the church wall (there would need to be a stick in the hole in the middle) to show medieval villagers when to come to church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023
Ancient faces adorn the front of the Steventon church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023

Next to the church is a gigantic yew tree, an estimated 900 years old. It measures at least 25 feet around. Yews were considered sacred in ancient times and also by Christians. They represented regeneration and new life. The church key, 15 inches long and weighing 5 lb., was kept in a hole in this tree during Austen’s time. After the key disappeared, a replacement was made which is kept elsewhere. The church is now always left unlocked for visitors.

Ancient yew tree next to the church, where the key was hidden in earlier times. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023
Revd. Canon Michael Kenning, former rector of Steventon, holds the huge key to the church door (a replacement of the ancient key, which disappeared). Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023

The tower holds three church bells. The oldest was cast in 1470. These bells were restored, through the support of JASNA, in 1995. I got to hear them ringing when the JASNA Summer Tour group visited in July. The bells are rung for church services, weddings, and funerals.

The Church Interior

The layout of the church is still much the same as it was in Jane Austen’s time. Three arches separate the nave of the church (where the congregation sits) from the chancel (where the altar is).

Interior of the church at Steventon. The arches were there in Austen’s time. The stained glass windows, orange and green tilework on the arches, Transfiguration painting above the arches, and pews all date from Victorian times (later in the 19th century). Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023

A large box pew, made of oak, was built in the seventeenth century for the lords of the manor. The Digweed family, who rented the manor house from the Knights, used this pew during Austen’s time. It was at the front of the nave, near the pulpit. The box pew is still in the church but has been moved to the back. It is now used as the vestry, the clergyman’s office.

So the Digweed family sat in state, protected from drafts and from curious eyes, at the front. Others, including the Austen family, likely sat on benches. If there weren’t enough benches, servants and the poor would have stood in the aisles and at the back. There was no gallery (balcony) in this church.

Box pew used by the Digweed family, squires of the manor in Austen’s time. It has been moved to the back of the church and is now used as a vestry, office for the clergyman. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023
View from inside the box pew. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2015

Some ancient wall paintings were found during one restoration of the church. These have been left uncovered. They were most likely covered by whitewash during Jane Austen’s time, however.

Medieval wall painting in Steventon church. Probably of a bishop. It would have been covered over during Austen’s time. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Other lovely decorations in the church are from Victorian times. The stained glass windows, pews, pulpit, baptismal font, choir stalls, and altar are all from the late 1800s, with the organ from the early 1900s.

Victorian baptismal font in St. Nicholas’ Church, Steventon. The modern cover represents a shepherd praying at the old Saxon cross, before the church was built. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023 (Font cover partially funded by JASNA Ohio North Coast region)

Austen Documents

The church has reproductions of several church documents relating to Jane. (The originals are held at the Hampshire County Archives, which unfortunately I did not get a chance to visit.) The parish priest—in this case, Jane’s father, George Austen—kept the parish register for officially recording births, marriages, and deaths. The register included a sample page for marriages, and Jane playfully filled this out with imaginary names for her own future marriage.

In the sample marriage form for the parish register, Jane imagined herself marrying several possible men. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Another page of the parish register records Jane’s baptism at home on Dec. 17, 1775, shortly after her birth. She was born in the middle of a very cold winter, so her father christened her at home. She was officially received into the church on April 5, 1776, probably her first excursion.

Parish register record of Jane Austen’s baptism and reception into the church. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

We can also see Jane and Cassandra’s signatures as witnesses to a wedding. Their first cousin Jane Cooper married Thomas Williams. Jane, Cassandra, and Edward Cooper (Jane Cooper’s brother and Jane Austen’s cousin), were the official witnesses.

Signatures of Jane and Cassandra Austen who witnessed the marriage of their cousin Jane Cooper. Photo © Brenda S. Cox 2023

Austen Memorials at Steventon Church

Inside the Steventon church, you can find memorial plaques to Jane’s brother James, James’s first wife Anne, and his second wife Mary. When Anne died in 1795, James was not yet rector of Steventon, so he is listed as vicar of Sherborne St. John.

Memorial in Steventon church to James Austen’s first wife, Anne, 1795. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

When James died in 1819, the memorial says he “succeeded his father George Austen as rector of this parish.” George, of course, died in Bath and is buried at St. Swithin’s.

Memorial to Jane’s brother James Austen, who followed his father as rector of Steventon. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Mary’s memorial says that she died in 1843 at Speens, Berkshire, but was buried in Steventon (about 16 miles away) with her husband. Mary, of course, had left the rectory when her husband died and his brother Henry took over as rector.

Memorial to James Austen’s second wife, Mary, who died in 1843. She was Martha Lloyd’s sister. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

James and Mary Austen’s grave is in the churchyard.

Grave of James and Mary Austen in Steventon churchyard. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Knight and Digweed Memorials at Steventon

The Knight family owned the manor at Steventon from the early 1700s. They rented it to the Digweed family in 1758, and Digweeds lived there until 1877, though the Knights sold the property in 1855. (This was similar to Charles Bingley renting Netherfield and becoming the de facto squire of the parish.) Austen mentions some of the Digweeds in her letters.

Memorials in the church commemorate Rev. William Knight, “50 years rector of Steventon.” He was Jane’s nephew who became rector after Henry. A sad memorial below his own records the deaths of William’s three daughters, ages 3, 4, and 5 years, who were all “cut off by scarlet fever” in one June week of 1848.

Memorials in St. Nicholas’, Steventon, to Jane’s nephew William Knight, rector of the church for 50 years, and to his three little girls who died tragically of scarlet fever. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

A ledgerstone on the church floor covers the grave of Hugh and Ruth Digweed, who died while Jane was at living at Steventon, and their daughter who died at age 2 in 1770. Other memorials enshrine later members of the Digweed family.

Some Digweeds, like these, are buried in the church, the most honored place to be buried, presumably since they were the squires of the manor house. Others are buried outside in the churchyard.

This stone on the floor of the Steventon church covers the graves of Hugh and Ruth Digweed, who Jane Austen must have known. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

Steventon Church Today

Like most small country churches in England, Steventon is now part of a benefice including several churches, served jointly by a few clergy. Steventon belongs to the Overton Benefice, seven parishes all served by one rector, one vicar, and one curate. 

The Steventon parish is still small, rural, and agricultural, as it was in Austen’s time. About 250 people live in the parish. Sunday services are still held at the church twice a month, usually with a dozen or so people in the congregation. One is a Communion service and the other may be matins, evensong, a holiday service, or a Saturday breakfast and talk for the wider community. Much larger crowds, up to 100 or even 200 people, come to events like holiday services, weddings, baptisms, and funerals. The church seats about 75-80 comfortably, so it can be quite crowded!

In Austen’s time, the church would get bitterly cold in the winter. A modern improvement is the addition of heaters under the pews. People in each pew can turn on their own heater, making the church much more comfortable without wasting energy by heating the whole church.

Marilyn Wright, the churchwarden, told me that she loves the peace of the church, and goes in there when she wants to pray and think. She said if her father, who has dementia, ever got lost, they would find him at the church. As I heard over and over in the Austen country churches, the church is still central to community life.

The Revd. Canon Michael Kenning, former rector of Steventon, gave our JASNA tour group a lovely introduction to the church. At the end, he pointed out that there are about 10,000 Church of England churches in the UK, and most do not get any funding from the National Trust, the British government, or the Church of England. Therefore they need outside funding. The Steventon church is currently in need of some major work. Damp has gotten into the walls, causing cracks and other damage. New drainage and other work is needed. After that, interior features of the church will be renovated. 

If you wish to donate to the Steventon church, you can use this link.

JASNA provides support for such special projects at Austen family churches, including this one. If you are a JASNA member, donations to the churches fund for such projects are appreciated. (You can donate when renewing your membership, or sign in to your account and go under the drop-down menu to “Donate to JASNA or English Institutions.”)

For Further Exploration

During Austen time, Steventon had a Norman baptismal font. For an idea of what that might have looked like, as well as stories of St. Nicholas, see, The Winchester Type Fonts.

A Guide to St. Nicholas Church Steventon gives more details and pictures of all parts of the church and churchyard (follow links to further pages).

A Drive through Steventon to St Nicholas Church 

More images of the church 

A guide to the Steventon church, Jane Austen’s Steventon by Deirdre LeFaye, and guides to other Austen-related churches are available from Jane Austen Books.

Steventon’s Rectory Garden

Steventon Parsonage 

Rectors and Vicars in Jane Austen

Yews in English Churchyards 

Posts on Other Austen Family Churches

Chawton

Hamstall Ridware

Adlestrop and the Leigh Family

Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel

Great Bookham and Austen’s godfather, Rev. Samuel Cooke

Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.

I’m delighted to share with you a beautiful new book I think you’ll want by your side this fall as you settle down for a cozy read by the fire! It’s called Bygone: Musings and Poems from a Regency Hearthside by Hannah Linder.

Not only is it beautiful to behold, but it is also beautiful to read. Read on for a fun interview with Hannah and some of my own thoughts on her book!

Book Description:

Modern, Regency-Esque Love Poems from a Regency Novelist. Enjoy this hardback collection of whimsical thoughts and poems, perfect for fans of Jane Austen. Grab a cup of tea and immerse yourself in this gift book release, just in time for fall.

I had the great honor of writing an endorsement for this book:

In Bygone: Musings and Poems from a Regency Hearthside, Hannah Linder offers elegant, heartfelt verses for the discerning Regency soul. As words dance delicately across the page, you’ll soon hear the gentle rustle of silk and the subtle murmur of voices as you step back through time to the beauty and romance of a bygone era.”

As you can see, I found myself in a very poetic mood after reading Hannah’s poems! Her words not only sweep you away to another time and place, but they are also food for the soul.

Interview with Hannah Linder

Hannah agreed to do an interview with me, and I enjoyed getting to know more about her and her writing and artistic background. She is an accomplished, creative, and talented person (I’m sure Austen would approve) with the same deep love for Austen and the Regency Era that all of us here at Jane Austen’s World share. I hope you enjoy our Q&A!

1. What is your background with poetry and what inspired you to write this book?

For years, I’ve enjoyed slipping off alone somewhere with an old poetry book, reading the stanzas out loud, or committing them to memory. I love the way poems play with words. The soothing sound. The cut of realization, throbbing at your chest, when you read something you always knew about life but never really pondered.

For years, I said I could not write poetry. I liked freedom best and writing in rhythms seemed too binding. Funny, isn’t it? Oftentimes the things we say we’ll never do are those we find ourselves doing. Now, writing poetry is an outlet. When emotions swell, I let them topple over and bleed into paper, each line a journal entry or a piece of what cries within me. Bygone is the collection of all my thoughts, dreams, and longings.

2. What are 2 of your favorite poems and what is the story behind each one?

Love You? is one that will always be special to me, because it reflects the heart of a wife who tries to explain to her husband all the ways she loves him. Love is not always flowers and moonlit dances and serenating music. Love, more often, is the simple things we do for each other. The life we live together.

Another favorite is Worth the While. This poem is a sweet reminder to slow down, be happy, and enjoy life as it comes.

3. When did you first discover Jane Austen and the Regency Era? 

My best friend, in my early teens, invited me over and introduced me to the 2005 Pride and Prejudice. From the moment Mr. Darcy walked through the foggy field with his coat billowing in the wind, I was hopelessly twitterpated. I have been in love with everything Jane Austen ever since.

4. Do you read Regency or Historical Fiction? If so, who are your favorite authors?

Absolutely! My all-time favorite Regency author is Michelle Griep. Her stories always keep me captivated.

5. What are your favorite 3 books you read in the last year?

This is such a hard question! I think Memory Lane by Becky Wade and Forgotten Secrets by Christy Barritt were among my favorite reads of the year.

6. Who do you picture reading the poems in this collection?

Anyone who loves the Regency Era, the sweetness of romance, the sing-song voice of poetry, or the sentimental things in life. Bygone would be a fun book to curl up with in a chair, near a hearth, with a steaming cup of tea.

7. What was your writing process for this collection? Where did you write these poems?

Anywhere, everywhere! Sometimes a thought or idea would strike me, and I would rush to write it down before I could forget. Other times, I’d just go wandering in a field, take a seat by the creek, and ponder on life until a poem came to me.

Bonus: Who is your favorite Jane Austen hero? Who is your favorite villain?

Absolutely, hands down, the wonderful Mr. Darcy. Though Mr. Knightly would be a close second. And villain, hmm…perhaps Mr. Wickham. He’s so charmingly deceitful and such a layered character. Jane Austen was so masterful.

About the Author

Hannah Linder resides in the beautiful mountains of central West Virginia. Represented by Books & Such, she writes Regency romantic suspense novels filled with passion, secrets, and danger. She is a four-time Selah Award winner, a 2023 Carol Award semi-finalist, and a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). Also, Hannah is an international and multi-award-winning graphic designer who specializes in professional book cover design. She designs for both traditional publishing houses and individual authors, including New York TimesUSA Today, and international bestsellers. She is also a self-portrait photographer of historical fashion. When Hannah is not writing, she enjoys playing her instruments—piano, guitar, ukulele, and banjolele—songwriting, painting still life, walking in the rain, and sitting on the front porch of her 1800s farmhouse.

To follow her journey, visit hannahlinderbooks.com.

Hannah’s Links

If you’d like to follow along with Hannah’s other literary and artistic ventures, here are a few ways to find her online:

Purchase Bygone

You can purchase Bygone by Hannah Linder HERE!

I hope you enjoyed learning more about Hannah and her beautiful new book! Which Jane Austen character do you think would be most likely to read poetry? Which would be most likely to write poetry?


RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women DevotionalThe Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Now Available: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

By Brenda S. Cox

“Now we are come from church . . .” (Jane to Cassandra, London, March 5, 1814)

In Jane Austen’s letters and novels, she often mentions church. A quick search of my Complete Works of Jane Austen shows 119 uses of the word “church” plus 31 uses of “chapel.” The church was an important part of Jane’s life.

A number of different churches are associated with Austen and her family, and this past summer in England I had the privilege of visiting many of them. In the coming months, I will share photos with you of some of these special places.

St. Nicholas’s Church, Chawton, where Jane Austen worshiped from 1809 to 1817. You can see the chimneys of Chawton House in the background; Chawton Cottage is a few minutes’ walk away. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

Country Churches in Austen’s England

Most of the Austen family churches are small country churches, like the churches the Bennets, Darcys, Tilneys, Dashwoods, Woodhouses, and others would have mostly attended.

Most country churches at that time were simple, whitewashed inside, with perhaps the Ten Commandments hung on the wall somewhere, along with monuments (usually plaques on the walls) commemorating people from the squire’s family or previous rectors. A simple Communion table at the front, with a railing in front of it, would have served as the altar. The part of the church around the altar is called the chancel.

Chancel of the Chawton church. This part of the church escaped the fire in the late 1870s, but was mostly redecorated later. The Communion railing, however, is from the 18th century; Jane Austen would have received Communion at that railing. Photo ©Brenda S. Cox, 2023.
By far the most elaborate memorial in the Chawton Church, this one commemorates Sir Richard Knight, who lived from 1638-1679. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.
Memorials to Jane’s mother and sister inside the church.

Preaching was an important part of each service, and the pulpit might have been one, two, or three levels high. Many churches had a gallery, a balcony where the choir, called the Singers, would sit, if they had music. From the top level of the pulpit, the clergyman could preach to those in the gallery, as well as see down into the box pews, pews surrounded by walls. These box pews were generally owned by the local gentry, who could listen in privacy and be protected from drafts of cold air. Others sat on benches.

Country families visiting Bath or London would have attended larger churches. I’ve speculated previously about where Jane herself (and Catherine Morland) might have worshiped in Bath.

Country Churches Today

The country churches we visited this summer now have small congregations for regular services; perhaps a dozen or so people on a Sunday morning. However, they occasionally host baptisms, weddings, and funerals, with much larger attendance. Those events also provide income to the churches. These small churches may gather one to two hundred people for holiday services such as Harvest, Christmas, or Easter. They sometimes also host local school events, concerts, and community events.

Interior of Chawton Church. The stained glass windows are all from Victorian times or later. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

St. Nicholas’ Church, Chawton, Today

Let’s start with the Chawton church. This is the one Jane Austen fans can most easily visit, since it is next to Chawton House and a short walk from Jane Austen’s House. Jane Austen attended this church from 1809 to 1817, while she and her mother, sister, and friend were living in Chawton Cottage (now Jane Austen’s House, a museum). During that time, she wrote or rewrote all her novels, and four of them were published. (The other two were published shortly after her death.)

The church is named after St. Nicholas, like the church in Steventon where Austen grew up; that’s a little confusing.

This Victorian stained glass window in Chawton Church honors St. Nicholas, patron saint of children and others, to whom the church is dedicated, and St. Swithin, patron saint of Winchester Cathedral where Jane Austen is buried. The window is a memorial to Marianne Knight, daughter of Jane’s brother Edward Knight. Marianne died unmarried in 1896, and the window appears to have been commissioned by her great-nephews and great-nieces (if I am deciphering the Latin correctly).  Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023.

Nowadays a small team of clergy usually serve a group of country parishes. The Chawton church is now part of the Northanger Benefice, which includes eight small rural parishes, each with its own church