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Monday, June 9, 2025

 

Action between the British Frigate Unicorn and the French Frigate La Tribune June 8, 1796

The newspapers in June 1796 were full of the impressive victory of the Unicorn, the ship on which Jane's brother Charles served. His captain was her Cousin Jane’s husband, and the family followed the ship closely. Without loss of life or injury, the crew had fought ten hours with the French ship La Tribune. Charles’s ship won at last by striking down her mast.

Jane’s brothers, Frank and Charles, became admirals in the Navy, and Frank was knighted. His first wife passed away, and in 1828 he married Jane's dear friend, Martha Lloyd, who became “Lady Austen.” You can read more in Jane Austen’s Sailor Brothers by J.H. and E.C. Hubbock (published in 1906).


Sunday, June 8, 2025

 

A Bathing Machine in Jane Austen's time

Jane Austen tried sea bathing when they stayed on the coast. A section of the beach was designated for women, with bathing machines and female attendants in weighted coats to help.

Jane wrote to her sister about the experience. She enjoyed it so much that she stayed in the water too long!


Saturday, June 7, 2025

 


One of my favorite writers about Jane Austen is Brenda S. Cox. You can find her website at https://topazcrossbooks.com/. She reviews books about Jane Austen and writes original insights on Jane's life, as well as other interesting people.

She has a wonderful book called "Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen's England."



Friday, June 6, 2025


Jane's copy of Elegant Extracts in Prose 

Jane's father assigned his children and students readings from Elegant Extracts in Prose, which had been assembled by his boyhood headmaster, Vicesimus Knox. The thick book contained essays organized into sections such as “Moral and Religious.” 

In their copy of Elegant Extracts, Jane and Cassandra admired the essays by Samuel Johnson, who wrote with force and elegance. They began calling him “dear Dr. Johnson.” 

Thursday, June 5, 2025

 

Jane Austen was educated at home for most of her childhood, but she did attend the Abbey School at Reading for about 18 months. This historic gate is now a museum, but in her day, it was a successful girls' school built around the ruined gate of an abbey.

Wednesday, June 4, 2025




 Jane Austen admired Mary Queen of Scots, and Cassandra made this illustration of the unfortunate queen using Jane as her model. The illustration was for a book Jane wrote called:

 History of England from the Reign of Henry VI to the Death of Charles I: By a partial, prejudiced, & ignorant Historian.

For King Henry VIII, she wrote: 

Abolishing Religious Houses and leaving them to the ruinous depredations of time has been of infinite use to the landscape of England in general, which probably was a principal motive for his doing it, since otherwise why should a Man who was of no Religion himself be at so much trouble to abolish one which had for Ages been established in the Kingdom.

Tuesday, June 3, 2025


This is Steventon Rectory, where Jane grew up. Her father served the local parishes of Steventon and Deane. Her home rose three stories high—a rectangular block with dormer windows poking from the roof. Most people would not have guessed that seven small bedrooms populated the second floor, and there were rooms for student boarders in the attic.

In addition to the seven children who grew up in the house, Jane's father usually had 3-4 students whom he tutored during the school year.


 

Monday, June 2, 2025


 Jane's brother Edward had two homes, and this one is Chawton Great House near the cottage where Jane, her mother, her sister Cassandra, and her friend Martha Lloyd lived. 

Edward had eleven children, and they visited the cottage almost daily, helping to make a patchwork quilt that ultimately included 3,000 pieces. "Aunt Jane" was a frequent guest at the Great House, and her niece Fanny recorded how they explored the house, often getting completely lost as they followed hallways and passages. 

This sketch is by Ellen G. Hill, who illustrated an excellent book: 

Jane Austen: Her Homes and Her Friends by Constance Hill, illustrated by Ellen G. Hill, 1901 (in public domain: https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/hill/austen/homes.html).

Sunday, June 1, 2025

 

Chawton Cottage

When Jane was 33 years old, she and her family moved into Chawton Cottage, which was provided by her brother, Edward. Her mother was a widow now, and the family was glad to return to the Hampshire countryside after living in Southampton and Bath for years.

Their cottage was similar to their old country parsonage with its low ceilings and small rooms. The dining room window looked out on the busy coach road, which forked at this spot to send half the coaches to Fareham and the other to Winchester.

    The traffic added to the daily excitement, especially the Collyer’s Flying Machine—a stagecoach that passed daily on its route from Southampton to London. It had six horses and passengers inside and on the roof, along with an armed guard to protect from highwaymen. A man rode one of the front horses to keep the team in order, and the coachman was Mr. Falkner, who lived nearby. (Jane later dubbed it Falkner’s Car or ‘the Car of Falkenstein’ in a joke with her niece, Anna.)

Saturday, May 31, 2025

George Austen's Bible from the Church of St. Nicholas in Steventon

 


Jane's father used this Bible as the rector of Steventon Parish. The Church of St. Nicholas was built 500 years before Jane's time. You can read more about it here.

Friday, May 30, 2025

Today is the day of the Winchester Ball in honor of Jane Austen! I'm hoping to learn more about dancing in Jane Austen's time. My friend Edyne taught us many vintage dances over the years, and I hope to put them to good use!




Winchester Cathedral


 Jane Austen was buried at Winchester Cathedral. 

Her sister Cassandra wrote in a letter to Fanny Knight two days after Jane’s death, “I have lost a treasure, such a Sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed, —She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow.” She also wrote, “I know you suffer severely, but I likewise know that you will apply to the fountain-head for consolation, and that our merciful God is never deaf to such prayers as you will offer. The last sad ceremony is to take place on Thursday morning; her dear remains are to be deposited in the Cathedral. It is a satisfaction to me to think that they are to lie in a building she admired so much; her precious soul, I presume to hope, reposes in a far superior Mansion. May mine one day be reunited to it!”

Thursday, May 29, 2025

Jane Austen's tour of Bath

 This is our plan for seeing Bath, where Jane Austen lived for seven years. Bath is famous for Bath Abbey, the Roman Baths that still pipe water, and the Jane Austen Museum. In addition to the museum, we hope to see the exteriors of some of Jane's homes, including 25 Gay Street, No. 1 The Paragon, and No. 4 Sydney Place, as well as Sydney Gardens (where she walked regularly) and the Bath Assembly Rooms (which her family attended for balls or evening events.)


This is what the Assembly Rooms looked like in Jane's day.



St. Swithin's Church in Bath in 1790 near Aunt and Uncle Leigh-Perrot

St. Swithin's Church

 Jane Austen's parents were married at this church in Bath, and it was just down the street from her aunt and uncle (the Leigh-Perrots), who lived at No. 1 Paragon in a row of townhomes that ran alongside a gracefully curved street. Jane's father was also buried in the churchyard of this church.

Uncle Leigh-Perrot was the brother of Jane's mother and liked to write witty poems like her mother. He read about the marriage of Captain Foote to Miss Patten and wrote a poem. (Pattens were wooden overshoes with an iron ring that raised the wearer above the mud.)


Through the rough paths of life,

With a patten your guard,

May you safely and pleasantly jog;

May the knot never slip, nor the ring press too hard,

Nor the foot find the Patten a clog.


Pattens


Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Sydney Gardens in Jane Austen's Day

 This is a map of the Labyrinth at Sydney Gardens in Bath, where Jane Austen liked to stroll. Can you navigate your way to the center?


The gardens were beautiful, with paths that took her past groves, cascades, and ornamental bridges. 

 




Monday, May 26, 2025

Jane Austen's Portable Writing Desk

 


For Jane’s birthday on December 16, 1794, Jane's father bought her a writing desk. It was made of mahogany with a drawer that locked. It folded to make it portable and came with a glass inkstand. Jane wrote on small strips of paper that she tucked into the drawer. 

Jane took her desk with when she traveled, it had its own adventure as she related to Cassie by letter: “After we had been here a quarter of an hour, it was discovered that my writing and dressing boxes had been by accident put into a chaise which was just packing off as we came in, and were driven away towards Gravesend on their way to the West Indies. No part of my property could have been such a prize before, for in my writing-box was all my worldly wealth.”

Jane especially worried that her manuscript would be hard to replace. Fortunately, a man on horse went after the chaise and brought back the boxes within half an hour. 

Jane Austen's School Blues


Jane shared her French primer with her older brother Frank or Francis. They both wrote in the book. Can you see her message? Look near the top of the left page: "I wish I had done," in Jane's handwriting. On the right page:

Mothers

angry 

Fathers gone out.




Sunday, May 25, 2025

Games in Jane Austen's Day

 


Battledore and Shuttlecock


Jane was popular with her young nephews, who loved this game. They kept a count of how long they could keep the shuttlecock in the air, and one of their records was six times.

 




Saturday, May 24, 2025

Picture Books in Jane Austen's Day

 Jane Austen had a beloved copy of Goody Two-Shoes that told the story of Miss Margary. She and her brother lost their parents when they were young. They were so poor that they had no shoes. A kind man provided shoes for her. She was so proud of them that she soon became known as Goody Two-Shoes. 

She learned to read and helped others learn as well, and was so good with children that she became the local teacher. She was also kind to animals and rescued a raven and a lamb. She made learning to read fun by hiding wooden letters around the school room for the children to find. 

Though "Goody Two-Shoes" has a different meaning today, she was one of Jane's earliest heroines!



Thursday, May 22, 2025

Jane Austen's Fifth-Great Niece

 I learned that Caroline Jane Knight (Jane Austen's Fifth-Great Niece) has started the Jane Austen Literacy Foundation to support literacy around the world. You can check out their website here: https://janeaustenlf.org/

You can also join the community for free: https://janeaustenlf.org/community



Caroline helped me understand that Jane's older brother, Edward, inherited the Knight estate without the type of formal adoption that we have today. When he inherited, he changed his name from Austen to Knight but continued his close family relationship with his Austen family. He spent part of the year at his Chawton Estate, where his mother and sisters lived in a cottage nearby.