When Edward's wife died, he arranged for his mother and sisters to live in a cottage on his estate, and Jane saw her nieces and nephews almost daily. They were also invited for meals and celebrations.
Jane's brother Frank rented a cottage nearby, and then rented the Great House for several years. Frank and his wife had 11 children too!
Can you imagine reading aloud to a flock of children in this nook? Her niece claimed that Jane read "just like a play."
I was honored to meet Jeremy Knight, who is descended from Jane's brother Edward. He volunteers at Chawton House and explained the genealogy of the family to visitors.
On May 24th, Cassie took Jane to Winchester to be closer to her physician. They stayed at No. 8 College Street, where Jane tried to keep cheerful, writing to her nephew James Edward about the “neat little Drawing-Room with a bow window overlooking Dr. Gabell’s garden.”
She wrote a short poem Winchester
at the Races to honor St. Swithun’s Day on July 15, but then for the next
two days Jane slept most of the time. Her last words were “God grant
me patience, Pray for me, Oh Pray for me.” Her sister, Cassandra, was holding her as she took her last breath on July 18, 1817.
Heather and I had a wonderful time following in the footsteps of Jane Austen. Here are some highlights...
We visited Jane's home in Chawton. It was a magical journey!
I hope to post more once I recover from jetlag...
N.B. There will be very few Dates in this History.
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).
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!
She has a wonderful book called "Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen's England."
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.”
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.
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.
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:
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.)
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!
One of my favorite pictures just before the ball...
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!”
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.
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.
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.
This is Sydney Gardens today:
