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The British Library has recently lauched a currently free to purchase application for iPad, entitled The Historical Collection.
Its remit is 19th century books, and the collection is divided into various categories including, the History of Britain and Ireland, the History of Travel, History of Asia, the History of Europe, the History of Colonial North America and one that directly concerns us, Novels of the 18th and 19th Century.
The books are reproduced digitally as a whole, along with sometimes sumptuous bindings, as in this example, The Story of Captain Cook’s Voyages Around the World
and also include illustrations if there are any, again here is one from Captain Cook’s Voyages:
Currently two Jane Austen novels are included; the 1870 edition of Emma, published by Richard Bentley:
And the 1896 edition of Sense and Sensibility, published by Macmillan, illustrated by Hugh Thompson.
We are of course nearing the end of our series on his illustrations for this novel, so this is of extra interest to us.
The collection is going to be enlarged over time, and there will probably be a fee payable for access to some titles, as this passage from the British Library’s website suggests:
Currently the app features over a thousand 19th century books, but it will provide access to more than 60,000 titles by later this summer when details on pricing for the service will be announced. The books, which are all in the Library’s collection and in the public domain, span numerous languages and subject areas including titles such as ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley and ‘The Adventures of Oliver Twist’ by Charles Dickens.
Currently the app. is free and available from the ITunes App Store. This is a very intriguing collection, and I admit Im finding it very readable. Some of the titles have been curated and set into context, which is very helpful. I wonder if they will add more illustrated versions of the early editions of Jane Austen’s works? Lets hope they do, as teh originals are ferociously expensive today.
Professor Amanda Vickery’s splendid BBC Radio 4 series, Voices from the Old Bailey is back, and is on excellent form.
The first programme in the new, second series of four programmes was first broadcast last Wednesday at 9 a.m., but can be accessed here to “listen again” via the BBC Website. This week’s episode concentrates on riots during the 18th century, and the section on the Gordon Riots, an uprising of terrible anti- Catholic violence put down with equal harshness by the army, and which occurred in London and the surrounding district in 1780, is absolutely riveting.
But does this have anything to do with Jane Austen, I hear you cry ? Most definitely, yes. In Northanger Abbey it is surely the folk memories of the Gordon Riots that cause Eleanor Tilney to be very easily alarmed upon misunderstanding an innocent remark made by Catherine Morland in Chapter 14:
Delighted with her progress, and fearful of wearying her with too much wisdom at once, Henry suffered the subject to decline, and by an easy transition from a piece of rocky fragment and the withered oak which he had placed near its summit, to oaks in general, to forests, the enclosure of them, waste lands, crown lands and government, he shortly found himself arrived at politics; and from politics, it was an easy step to silence. The general pause which succeeded his short disquisition on the state of the nation was put an end to by Catherine, who, in rather a solemn tone of voice, uttered these words, “I have heard that something very shocking indeed will soon come out in London.”
Miss Tilney, to whom this was chiefly addressed, was startled, and hastily replied, “Indeed! And of what nature?”
“That I do not know, nor who is the author. I have only heard that it is to be more horrible than anything we have met with yet.”
“Good heaven! Where could you hear of such a thing?”
“A particular friend of mine had an account of it in a letter from London yesterday. It is to be uncommonly dreadful. I shall expect murder and everything of the kind.”
Of course, Catherine is talking of nothing more serious than of the publication of one of her horrid books, but Eleanor Tilney, the better informed of the two and with an emotional interest in any potential public unrest that might have to be put down by her elder brother, who is serving in the Twelfth Light Dragoons, leaps to some serious conclusions. Henry Tilney has to set matters aright in a very Mr Bennet-ish fashion( and not in a manner of which I approve, to be brutally honest with you, despise me if you dare):
“My dear Eleanor, the riot is only in your own brain. The confusion there is scandalous. Miss Morland has been talking of nothing more dreadful than a new publication which is shortly to come out, in three duodecimo volumes, two hundred and seventy–six pages in each, with a frontispiece to the first, of two tombstones and a lantern — do you understand? And you, Miss Morland — my stupid sister has mistaken all your clearest expressions. You talked of expected horrors in London — and instead of instantly conceiving, as any rational creature would have done, that such words could relate only to a circulating library, she immediately pictured to herself a mob of three thousand men assembling in St. George’s Fields, the Bank attacked, the Tower threatened, the streets of London flowing with blood, a detachment of the Twelfth Light Dragoons (the hopes of the nation) called up from Northampton to quell the insurgents, and the gallant Captain Frederick Tilney, in the moment of charging at the head of his troop, knocked off his horse by a brickbat from an upper window. Forgive her stupidity. The fears of the sister have added to the weakness of the woman; but she is by no means a simpleton in general.”
This weeks programme features one of my favourite historians, Professor Peter King, whose books, Crime, Justice, and Discretion in England 1740-1820 and Crime and Law in England, 1750-1840 are two of my most favourite books on the subject. Go read them now if you possibly can. Completing the discussion panel are Dr. Katrina Navickas and Professor Tim Hitchcock, co-founder of the fabulous on-line archive, Old Bailey Online.
Amanda is currently filming for her BBC TV Special on Sense and Sensibility, which will air sometime in December. She recently sent me this picture of her being filmed examining The Watsons manuscript at Sotheby’s,which of course was recently sold for nearly £1 million. I thought you would like to see it, so here it is:
First, some news you will all welcome. Our good friend Amanda Vickery, now Professor of Early Modern History at Queen Mary College UNiversity of London is currently making a programme for BBC TV on Sense and Sensibility to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of its Publication this year.
It is entitled The Prime of Miss Jane Austen, in a nod to Muriel Spark’s famous novel, and we spoke about it on Twitter yesterday. The programme is again being produced by Matchlight Productions,who were, of course, the production company who commissioned our favourite At Home with the Georgians programmes, which were based on Professor Vickery’s book, Behind Closed Doors.
This is what their Press release has to say about it:
In The Prime of Miss Jane Austen Prof. Amanda Vickery returns to mark the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s first novel Sense and Sensibility. When Jane Austen died her slight reputation appeared to die with her. Her books soon went out of print. Now, 200 years later, she sits at the summit of English literature and thanks to television and film adaptations, as well as the internet, she is an international cultural brand. What interests Amanda is how different periods and generations have looked for their own reflection in the characters and plots of the novels. She wants to work out what that says about them, as well the hold Jane Austen’s fiction has on us now.
I will of course keep you informed of all developments. Amanda tells me the programme will be an hour long and it is due to be broadcast on BBC 2 in November or December of this year.
Next, Mansfield Park is being adapted as an opera.
The British composer Jonathan Dove and Heritage Opera will be performing it this summer, and I am lucky enough to be going to the first performance, to be held at the magnificent Boughton House in Northamptonshire, (seen below) in the presence of the owners, their Graces, the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry.
How very fitting! An opera of this theatrically themed novel in a private house in Northamptonshire! I am a fan of Jonathan Dove’s works,since I saw His Dark Materials at the National Theatre, which was an adaptation of Philip Pullman’s amazing trilogy of novels. I will, of course, be reporting back to you on this….
Like this:
at Bonhams auction house in New York on the 22nd June in a sale of 20th century original book and magazine illustrations.
(©Bonhams)
It is in fact one of the illustrations we have already discussed in our series on Hugh Thomson’s illustrations for Sense and Sensibility. ( go here to see). Entitled Offered Him One of Folly’s Puppys, it shows Sir John Middleton offering Willoughby ( boo-hiss) one of the puppies recently brought forth by his favourite dog. The groom or huntsman is shown holding the tiny pup. The illustration was first drawn in 1896, and was included in Macmillan’s edition of the novel. Do click on the illustration to enlarge it and appreciate the fine and delicious detail.
It is being offered in a Lot with one more illustration by Hugh Thomson, Oi Goes to Market wi’ Vather’s Hay, but this is not related to Jane Austen. The estimate for the Lot of two illustrations is $800-1200 USD and I must admit I’m tempted at that price. Go here to see the auctioneer’s details of the lot, and here to see the details of the sale as a whole.
The catalogue’s contents, as a whole, makes my mouth water, I have to admit! On offer are some of Hans Christian Anderson’s famed silhouettes,
(©Bonhams)
a marvellous “hollyhock” by Walter Crane from his book Flora’s Feast, and Ernest Shepherd ‘s Winnie the Pooh ( the companion of my childhood!) amongst other treasures.
.
I’ll keep an eye out for the results…..and let you know if I bid!
Our selection of Hugh Thomson’s illustration this week include some of his best efforts, in my very humble opinion.
The first is of that dreadful creation, John Dashwood, seeing his half sisters into Mrs Jennings’ carriage in Sackville Street. He is clearly only interested in meeting Mrs Jennings because she is rich. Odious man.
John Dashwood was really far from being sorry to see his sisters again; it rather gave them satisfaction; and his inquiries after their mother were respectful and attentive.
Elinor found that he and Fanny had been in town two days.
”I wished very much to call upon you yesterday,” said he, “but it was impossible, for we were obliged to take Harry to see the wild beasts at Exeter Exchange: and we spent the rest of the day with Mrs. Ferrars. Harry was vastly pleased. This morning I had fully intended to call on you, if I could possibly find a spare half-hour, but one has always so much to do on first coming to town. I am come here to bespeak Fanny a seal. But to-morrow I think I shall certainly be able to call in Berkeley Street, and be introduced to your friend Mrs. Jennings. I understand she is a woman of very good fortune. And the Middletons too, you must introduce me to them . As my mother-in-law’s relations, I shall be happy to shew them every respect. They are excellent neighbours to you in the country, I understand.”
”Excellent indeed. Their attention to our comfort, their friendliness in every particular, is more than I can express.”
”I am extremely glad to hear it, upon my word; extremely glad indeed. But so it ought to be; they are people of large fortune, they are related to you, and every civility, and accommodation that can serve to make your situation pleasant, might be reasonably expected. And so you are most comfortably settled in your little cottage and want for nothing! Edward brought us a most charming account of the place; the most complete thing of its kind, he said, that ever was, and you all seemed to enjoy it beyond anything. It was a great satisfaction to us to hear it, I assure you.”
Elinor did feel a little ashamed of her brother; and was not sorry to be spared the necessity of answering him, by the arrival of Mrs. Jennings’s servant, who came to tell her that his mistress waited for them at the door.
Mr. Dashwood attended them down stairs, was introduced to Mrs. Jennings at the door of her carriage, and repeating his hope of being able to call on them the next day, took leave.
Chapter 33.
The next illustration shows that meeting taking place….
His visit was duly paid. He came with a pretence at an apology from their sister-in-law, for not coming too; “but she was so much engaged with her mother, that really she had no leisure for going any where.” Mrs. Jennings, however, assured him directly, that she should not stand upon ceremony, for they were all cousins, or something like it, and she should certainly wait on Mrs. John Dashwood very soon, and bring her sisters to see her. His manners to them , though calm, were perfectly kind; to Mrs. Jennings, most attentively civil; and on Colonel Brandon’s coming in soon after himself, he eyed him with a curiosity which seemed to say, that he only wanted to know him to be rich to be equally civil to him .
Chapter 33
This is a masterly passage. Mrs Jennings’ uncomplicated kindness is expressed perfectly in her statement that ” they were all cousins or something like that”… friendly and cordial relationships are what matter to her not the depth of someone’s pocket. And Thomson portrays this genial openness very well in the illustration,above. For John Dashwood being kind and genial depended very much upon the material worth of the company before him. He is only now using his relationship with his sisters to expand his acquaintance of wealthy people. He really is detestable.
And talking of detestible…here we see that dreadful woman, Mrs Ferrars, who truly is a sour, dried up, bitter fruit.
Mrs. Ferrars was a little, thin woman, upright, even to formality, in her figure, and serious, even to sourness, in her aspect. Her complexion was sallow: and her features small, without beauty, and naturally without expression: but a lucky contraction of the brow had rescued her countenance from the disgrace of insipidity, by giving it the strong characters of pride and ill-nature. She was not a woman of many words: for, unlike people in general, she proportioned them to the number of her ideas; and of the few syllables that did escape her, not one fell to the share of Miss Dashwood, whom she eyed with the spirited determination of disliking her at all events.
Chapter 34
This is one of Thomson’s best illustrations in the book. He has captured this proud and hateful woman’s character perfectly.
And finally we see the sweet innocent nature of Marianne,perfectly captured in this illustration, who simply cannot understand why Edward wants to leave Elinor’s company. Whereas we know exactly why Edward just wants to run as fast as he can……to be as far away as possible from the woman with whom he is secretly engaged, Lucy, and the woman he truly loves…. Just look at the tension in Edward’s shoulders…
“Going so soon!” said Marianne; “my dear Edward, this must not be.”
And drawing him a little aside, she whispered her persuasion that Lucy could not stay much longer. But even this encouragement failed, for he would go; and Lucy, who would have outstaid him had his visit lasted two hours, soon afterwards went away.
”What can bring her here so often!” said Marianne, on her leaving them. “Could she not see that we wanted her gone! How teasing to Edward!”
”Why so? — we were all his friends, and Lucy has been the longest known to him of any. It is but natural that he should like to see her as well as ourselves.”
Marianne looked at her steadily, and said, “You know, Elinor, that this is a kind of talking which I cannot bear. If you only hope to have your assertion contradicted, as I must suppose to be the case, you ought to recollect that I am the last person in the world to do it. I cannot descend to be tricked out of assurances that are not really wanted.”
She then left the room; and Elinor dared not follow her to say more, for bound as she was by her promise of secrecy to Lucy, she could give no information that would convince Marianne; and painful as the consequences of her still continuing in an error might be, she was obliged to submit to it. All that she could hope, was that Edward would not often expose her or himself to the distress of hearing Marianne’s mistaken warmth, nor to the repetition of any other part of the pain that had attended their recent meeting — and this she had every reason to expect.
Chapter 35.
We are nearly at the end of our series of posts on the illustrations of Hugh Thompson the Ulster-born artist, for Sense and Sensibility.
This week’s illustrations are all very different, but they all show scenes that happen off -stage. The first is one of my favourites. It shows, in flashback, Mrs Jennings tending to her late but much beloved husband, who so enjoyed a glass of Constantia wine, especially when he was suffering from gout:
In the drawing-room, whither she then repaired, she was soon joined by Mrs. Jennings, with a wine-glass, full of something, in her hand.
”My dear,” said she, entering, “I have just recollected that I have some of the finest old Constantia wine in the house, that ever was tasted — so I have brought a glass of it for your sister. My poor husband! how fond he was of it! Whenever he had a touch of his old cholicky gout, he said it did him more good than anything else in the world. Do take it to your sister.”
”Dear ma’am,” replied Elinor, smiling at the difference of the complaints for which it was recommended, “how good you are! But I have just left Marianne in bed, and, I hope, almost asleep; and as I think nothing will be of so much service to her as rest, if you will give me leave, I will drink the wine myself.”
Mrs. Jennings, though regretting that she had not been five minutes earlier, was satisfied with the compromise; and Elinor, as she swallowed the chief of it, reflected that, though its good effects on a cholicky gout were at present of little importance to her, its healing powers on a disappointed heart might be as reasonably tried on herself as on her sister.
Chapter 30.
Mr Jennings looks as if he really is being cosseted by his loving wife, his feet raised on a foot stool to try to ease the pain of the gout. She is treating him to a glass of the sweet dessert wine which used to be (and now still is) made near Cape Town in South Africa. It was a very popular drink in early nineteenth century Engalnd..more on this soon….
The next illustration also shows a scene that is reported to us: that when he still thought quite well of him , Sir John Middleton had offered Willoughby one of Folly’s puppies. Sir John on hearing that Willoughby was indeed a blackguard had a reaction that only he could have :
Her carefulness in guarding her sister from ever hearing Willoughby’s name mentioned, was not thrown away. Marianne, though without knowing it herself, reaped all its advantage; for neither Mrs. Jennings, nor Sir John, nor even Mrs. Palmer herself, ever spoke of him before her. Elinor wished that the same forbearance could have extended towards herself, but that was impossible, and she was obliged to listen day after day to the indignation of them all.
Sir John could not have thought it possible. “A man of whom he had always had such reason to think well! Such a good-natured fellow! He did not believe there was a bolder rider in England! It was an unaccountable business. He wished him at the devil with all his heart. He would not speak another word to him, meet him where he might, for all the world! No, not if it were to be by the side of Barton covert, and they were kept waiting for two hours together. Such a scoundrel of a fellow! such a deceitful dog! It was only the last time they met that he had offered him one of Folly’s puppies! and this was the end of it!”
Here we have Sir John with his rather servile looking groom, chatting amiably to Willoughby ,about the next litter one of his hounds. Typical of Jane Austen, she reveals the essential nature of the man in his enthusiasms. Sir John is a typical country gentleman who no doubt hunted, shot and fished. His disgust at Willoughby’s behaviour, is now revealed, and is couched in his own terms of reference. Folly’s puppy had, in his opinion, a great escape, comparable to Marianne’s. And this is of course not the first time Sir John reacted in this way. When asked by Marianne about Willoughby’s character when they first met, Sir John could only wax lyrical about Willoughby’s pointer:
And is that all you can say for him?” cried Marianne, indignantly. “But what are his manners on more intimate acquaintance? What his pursuits, his talents and genius?”
Sir John was rather puzzled.
”Upon my soul,” said he, “I do not know much about him as to all that. But he is a pleasant, good humoured fellow, and has got the nicest little black bitch of a pointer I ever saw. Was she out with him to-day?”
But Marianne could no more satisfy him as to the colour of Mr. Willoughby’s pointer than he could describe to her the shades of his mind.
Chapter 9.
The third and final illustration this week, is another humorous one:
Here we have a glimpse of Nancy Steele’s “beau”, The Doctor, Dr Davies,who had accompanied Nancy and Lucy to London in a postchaise:
”Well, my dear,” said Mrs. Jennings, “and how did you travel?”
”Not in the stage, I assure you,” replied Miss Steele, with quick exultation; “we came post all the way, and had a very smart beau to attend us. Dr. Davies was coming to town, and so we thought we’d join him in a post-chaise; and he behaved very genteelly, and paid ten or twelve shillings more than we did.”
”Oh, oh!” cried Mrs. Jennings; “very pretty, indeed! and the Doctor is a single man, I warrant you.”
”There now,” said Miss Steele, affectedly simpering, “everybody laughs at me so about the Doctor, and I cannot think why. My cousins say they are sure I have made a conquest; but for my part I declare I never think about him from one hour’s end to another. ‘Lord! here comes your beau, Nancy,’ my cousin said t’other day, when she saw him crossing the street to the house. ‘My beau, indeed!’ said I, ‘I cannot think who you mean. The Doctor is no beau of mine.’”
”Aye, aye, that is very pretty talking — but it won’t do — the Doctor is the man, I see.”
”No, indeed!” replied her cousin, with affected earnestness, “and I beg you will contradict it, if you ever hear it talked of.”
Mrs. Jennings directly gave her the gratifying assurance that she certainly would not , and Miss Steele was made completely happy.
I love the simpering Nancy and the ever so slightly disapproving Lucy in this illustration. It has a lively feel, with the ostler’s men taking down the luggage from the post-chaise behind them. As ever I feel that Thompson works best when he can illustrate an amusing passage. What do you think?
Like this:
is the title of this BBC Radio 4 programme,available to Listen Again here, which was kindly bought to my attention by one of my correspondents after reading my Edward Ferrars and Hair Jewellery post.
Its an intesting programme ( only 30 minutes long) about the history of hair used as a symbol of remebrance, and I’m sure you will enjoy it,even if it does cover periods other than the time we are primarily intersted in here.
Continuing our series of posts to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the first publication of Sense and Sensibility, I thought it might be an opportune moment today to write about sentimental jewellery as worn by Edward Ferrars.
Poor Elinor Dashwood. She has all her hopes about a gently burgeoning, mutual and serious attraction between her and Edward Ferrars cruelly dashed, when it is revealed that a ring containing hair, one that he has suddenly taken to wearing, is made from a plaited lock, not of his sisters or even her own hair as Elinor had initially surmised, but of hair belonging to the scheming Lucy Steele to whom he is clandestinely engaged:
Elinor saw that it was his hand, and she could doubt no longer. The picture, she had allowed herself to believe, might have been accidentally obtained; it might not have been Edward’s gift; but a correspondence between them by letter, could subsist only under a positive engagement, could be authorised by nothing else; for a few moments, she was almost overcome — her heart sunk within her, and she could hardly stand; but exertion was indispensably necessary, and she struggled so resolutely against the oppression of her feelings, that her success was speedy, and for the time complete.
”Writing to each other,” said Lucy, returning the letter into her pocket, “is the only comfort we have in such long separations. Yes, I have one other comfort in his picture; but poor Edward has not even that . If he had but my picture, he says he should be easy. I gave him a lock of my hair set in a ring when he was at Longstaple last, and that was some comfort to him, he said, but not equal to a picture. Perhaps you might notice the ring when you saw him?”
”I did;” said Elinor, with a composure of voice under which was concealed an emotion and distress beyond anything she had ever felt before. She was mortified, shocked, confounded.
Sense and Sensibility, Chapter 22.
So, now we find Elinor, surrounded by the many proofs of the existence of the engagement between Lucy and Edward: earlier in this chapter Lucy had already produced a portrait miniature of Edward, a strong proof of an attachment as lovers often wore portraits of their love ( or his or her eyes) set in jewellery ; then she produced a letter, proof, as the passage above indicates, of an engagement as during this period a correspondence between young men and women was only properly to be undertaken between engaged men and women (there were other exceptions to the “no letter writing” rule, that is between relations or correspondence about a matter business); and the coup de grace is the hair ring, a very intimate token of regard. Elinor,and we, the readers, can no longer doubt that Edward and Lucy are indeed engaged and involved intimately, albeit secretly.
Hair jewellery has been out of fashion for some time now. I am lucky to posses a few family pieces in my collection dating from the mid 18th century to the late 19th century. Some people find these items squeamish. I confess, I don’t.
The hair jewellery with which we are most familiar is, I suppose, mourning jewellery, which often contained a lock of hair of the deceased and would have been given to members of the deceased’s family as a memento. And indeed hair did not need to be made into jewellery to be treasured. Jane Austen’s hair was kept as a momento, see below,
as was a lock of her father’s hair, and both are kept in the collection of the Jane Austen’s House Museum. Do note the label -My Father’s Hair- is written in Jane’s hand:
Here are two items of mourning jewellery containing hair from my collection:
a Georgian brooch, above, dating from 1816, containing a lock of hair held in a glass locket surrounded by pearls
and a later Victorian brooch dating from 1852, made of gold with black enamel decoration. The hair is plaited in the centre glass window of the jewel, as Lucy’s hair would have been plaited and set in Edward’s ring.
But, as we have now realised, some of these sentimental jewels were given as tokens of love and fidelity, often at the time of an engagement. They did not always denote memorials of death.
This, above is another family piece, circa 1765, and it is obvious from the colour of the gemstone used, -pink foiled tourmaline- that the brooch is not meant to symbolise memories of death. Mourning jewellery most often used two colours- white and black -as these were permitted colours associated with the first and most severe period of mourning. It is interesting to note that white emanel used on a piece would often indicate that the deceased was unmarried at death.
The reverse of the brooch has a small compartment filled with lightly plaited hair , presumably taken from the beloved’s head. It is, of course not ,seen by anyone when the piece is being worn,as it is hidden next to the skin or clothes. I often wonder of this brooch commemorated a clandestine relationship ….I do wish it could talk.
The fashion for purely sentimental, or lover’s jewellery increased after the publication in 1761 of Rousseaus’ La Nouvelle Heloise as Diana Scarisbrick explains in her magnificent book, Jewellery in Britain 1066-1837: a Documentary, Society, Literary and Artistic Survey:
Devotees of this novel extolling the virtues of the simple life and true love paraded their enamel crystal lockets of hair and the miniatures of loved one as proudly as they wore parues of rubies or diamonds. Mrs Delaney expressed the feelings which such jewels represented in her lines
All things but friendship such as your
Inconstant pass away
This lock the emblem of your love
Like that will ne’er decay.
Mrs Delaney’s poem alludes to the reason why hair was chosen as a memorial of love: hair simply does not rot away…as everlasting regard or love should endure…
Both types of hair jewellery have been in the news this year, for in January a love token, not a memorial piece, containing hair supposed to be that of Lord Nelson and Emma Hamilton, was sold in Salisbury by the auctioneer Wooley and Wallis of Salisbury.
It was a double sided locket. One side, above, allegedly showing a lock of Lord Nelson’s hair, together with an anchor worked in seed pearls and the initial ”N” …
and the reverse of the locket , showing what is thought to have been Emma Hamilton’s auburn hair. When it sold the piece achieved the amazing figure of £44,000.
Last week a piece of mourning jewellery commemorating Napoleon was sold by the auctioneer David Lay of Penzance in Cornwall, for the rather more modest price of £4000
So, there you are, a little explanation of hair jewellery as worn by Edward Ferrars, which was, when Sense and Sensibility was composed and written, an up to the minute expression of regard, and denoted the true nature of his relationship with Lucy Steele. No wonder poor Elinor was depressed when confronted with the evidence of this ring and what it represented.
This week some of us, at least , will be interested in watching the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton(I freely confess, I’ll be watching for I do love ceremonial and an excuse to party!) A very different, much more private Royal Wedding took place in the last year of Jane Austen’s life and as one of the happy couple was a fan of Jane Austen’s novels (as, allegedly, was her father ) I thought you might like to consider it today.
The wedding of Princess Charlotte, only daughter of the Prince Regent and his wife Caroline of Brunswick and heiress presumptive to the Crown, to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, shown above in their box at Covent Garden Theatre, took place on 2nd May, 1816.
Princess Charlotte appears to have been an admirer of Jane Austen’s works, and adored Sense and Sensibility. From the comments contained in her letters she reveals herself to be a typical teenager (though the term would, of course, have been unknown to her!) and she certainly identified with the character of Marianne Dashwood, that drama queen of all teenagers, and with all her trials and tribulations. Princess Charlotte was born on 7th January 1796 at Carlton House, the London home of the Prince of Wales. In 1812, when she read the novel, she would have been 16 years old. According to the evidence in her letters by 1st January 1812, she had” heard much” of the novel. By the 22nd January she had got a copy of the novel and had devoured it:
‘“Sence and Sencibility” (sic-jfw) I have just fin- ished reading; it certainly is interesting, & you feel quite one of the company. I think Maryanne (sic-jfw) & me are very like in disposition, that certainly I am not so good, the same imprudence, &c, however remain very like. I must say it interested me much.’
(See page 26, and note 6 thereto of The Letters of Princess Charlotte, 1811–1817,edited by A.Aspinall (1949))
Our friend Joseph Ballard, above, an American visiting England, saw the Princess attend a service at the Chapel Royal on June 17th, 1815. From his description in the journal he kept of his travels, she certainly appears to have been a rather typical teenager in more ways than one….I find it rather amusing…
Having a desire to see Royalty I attended the Chapel Royal, St. James’ Palace, to see the Princess Charlotte, probably the future Queen of England . The chapel is in the courtyard of the palace. The entrance is through a small door into a dark and narrow passage which carried you to the chapel. This is quite a confined room and not at all elegant. The ceiling is panelled and ornamented with the coats of arms of the nobility. The Princess came in attended by several lords and ladies, and took her seat in the gallery opposite to where I stood. She has a pretty face and eyes, with the buxomness of a country lass. Her dress was purple pelisse edged with white, with a French fashioned bonnet and a wreath around it. She had not the least gentility of appearance and her manners were shockingly vulgar, particularly when she stood up. She had then a kind of rolling about, and kept her arms akimbo. She took very little notice of the service and seemed, from her uneasiness, to wish that it were ended….
The wedding took place at Carlton House, the Prince Regent’s London Palace, which Jane Austen had visited in 1815.
The service was held in the Crimson Drawing Room, shown below, as it appeared at the time of the wedding. The room was transformed temporarily into a chapel for the event. A temporary altar with a crimson velvet altar cloth was set up in front of the fireplace. Crimson cushions, prayer books, gold plate and some massive candlesticks were brought in from the nearby Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace.
The effect would have been overwhelming and rather suffocating, in my opinion. The overly flamboyant Prince of Wales was, of course, responsible for the styling of the occasion. Interestingly, his daughter appears to have and a lighter touch and her country home at Claremont near Esher in Surrey, was decorated in altogether a more restrained style.
So…as ever with these type of occasions the burning question of the hour was….what did the Bride wear ? This is a more vexed question than you would first realise, as we really have no definite answer. This engraving below, again from my collection, of the happy royal couple, was published in the June 1816 edition of La Belle Assemblee, a Regency magazine.
It had this gushing accompaniment (which sounds similar in tone to many of the press reports of the forthcoming wedding that I have read this weekend : plus ca change…)
In the edition of the same magazine for May 1816, this following description of the dress is given:
As we have been gratified with a sight of the wedding dresses of this amiable and illustrious female, a particular yet concise account of them cannot but be acceptable to our fair readers.
The Royal Bride, happy in obtaining him whom her heart had selected, and whom consenting friends approved, wore on her countenance that tranquil and chastened joy which a female so situated could not fail to experience. Her fine fair hair, elegantly yet simply arranged, owed more to its natural beautiful wave than to the art of the friseur; it was crowned with a most superb wreath of brilliants, forming rosebuds with their leaves.
Her dress was silver lama on net, over a silver tissue slip, embroidered at the bottom with silver lama in shells and flowers. Body and sleeves to correspond, elegantly trimmed with point Brussels lace. The manteau was of silver tissue lined with white satin, with a border of embroidery to answer that on the dress, and fastened in front with a splendid diamond ornament. Such was the bridal dress …
A dress known as Princess Charlotte’s Wedding dress is now in the collection of the London Museum. It is clear that the dress as now seen does not agree with the contemporary descriptions, and examinations of the structure of the dress undertaken by the museum have revealed that it is now probably made up of pieces from two or even three, possibly different, dresses.
The bodice of the dress is very probably the only original part of the dress and is very elaborate. Kay Staniland , the author of In Royal Fashion: The Clothes of Princess Charlotte of Wales and Queen Victoria 1796-1901, an exhibition catalogue of an exhibition of Princess Charlotte’s and Queen Victoria’s clothes held in 1997 at the Museum of London, and which I was lucky enough to see, is of the opinion that this bodice would not have been covered by a mantle. The right to wear a royal mantle- a long train made of red velvet and ermine which was worn on state occasions was a touchy point of royal etiquette. The account of the mantle’s story by Robert Huish in his biography of Princess Charlotte of 1819 throws some detailed light on the subject. One was prepared for the Princess but because the Princess was only the granddaughter of a king and not a daughter of one at this point, as her ill grandfather George III was still very much alive though incapacitated, she was not entitled by her rank to wear such a mantle at public occasions. Not even her own wedding. Kay Staniand surmises that Queen Charlotte, the Princess’s grandmother, might have put into action the making of the mantle for Charlotte to wear but that
Given her husbands state of health and the fact that her son as Regent was acting in place of the King she may well have felt that Charlotte was almost the daughter of a king. Perhaps the Regent, occasionally more of a stickler for correct form than his mother, was the one tobe rigid about court etiquette in this instance. He was possibly also unwilling to allow such public acknowledgement of his daughters proximity to the throne.
It is almost certain that the artist responsive for the engraving in La Belle Assemblee, shown above, did not actually see the dress but had to rely on written descriptions of it. Kay Staniland , again in the In Royal Fashion catalogue, remarks
He(the engraver-jfew) was obviously not familiar with court dress and guessed incorrectly that the train was attached at the shoulders: it seems probable that he was confused by the use of the term “manteau” for a court train and translated it into the semblance of a state manteau”
(See: In Royal Fashion, Page 62)
If we have a close look at a part of the dress the part that is most probably original, the bodice- we can see the exquisite nature of the material from which the dress was made.
(Do note that you can clearly see the scallop shell design which was mentioned in the description in La Belle Assemblee.)
The bodice was made from Lama. Lama was a material formed by wrapping thin strips of plain or patterned silver of gold thread through the net ground of the material. It was dreadfully and ruinously expensive, and time consuming to make, but must have glittered beautifully in the candlelight radiating from those tall candlesticks in the Crimson Drawing Room. This was a very fashionable fabric in London at the time of the wedding, so the Princess was at the cutting edge of fashion. I wonder if this trend will be continued this week, or if the bride will set rather than follow a fashion? It will be interesting to see…
And did this royal bride and groom live happily ever after? Sadly , not in this case. The stress of living under the constant scrutiny of both the court, its observers and the press began to have detrimental effects on the health of both the Prince and the Princess. In August 1816 Claremont House near Esher in Surrey was brought for them, as a place of refuge in the country, not far from Town.
In David Hughson in his Circuit of London(1807) described the house as follows:
Claremont was the seat of the late Duke of Newcastle, by whom, when earl of Clare, its present name was given; on which occasion Garth wrote his poem of “Claremont in imitation of Coopers Hill” .It was a small house built under an hill covered with wood by Sir John Vanburgh,of whom it was purchased by the Duke who was at great expence (sic-jfw) in beautifying the gardens; adding to the house a considerable amount of building in stile with the original; and a large room in which he entertained foreign ambassadors and held magnificent banquets. It was purchased by the late Lord Clive who pulled it down and erected a very elegant villa in a better situation. The park is distinguished by its noble woods, lawns , mounts etc. The summer house called the Belvedere on a mount on that side of the park next Esher, affords an extensive view of the country. This beautiful place is now the property of the Earl of Tryconnel.Claremont is the ony legitimate architectural offspring of Capability Brown; it cost Lord Clive £150,000.
(Page 365, volume 5).
©NTPL/David Sellman
This is the Belvedere, as mentioned in Hughson’s description. The stunningly beautiful landscape gardens at Claremont are now owned by the National Trust and are open to the public. Details can be seen here
Whatever happiness and tranquility the couple had living at Clermont was sadly short lived. The Princess died while in labour on 6th November 1817. Her baby, a son, was still-born. Sir Richard Croft, her accoucheur, was criticised in the press and unfairly blamed for the tragedy. He committed suicide some months later after attending another very similar and traumatic birth. Here is his portrait taken in death by a close family friend, Sir Thomas Lawrence.
The nation was consumed by an absolute agony of grief, something that really was not seen again till the untimely and tragic death of Princess Diana produced such extraordinary scenes in 1997. As a result of Princess Charlotte’s death, the future of the monarchy was at risk, there being no legitimate heir to inherit the Crown in the next generation, though Prince George and his siblings had many illegitimate offspring. This dire situation was not resolved until the Prince Regent’s brother,the Duke of Kent married and had a daughter, Princess Victoria in 1819, who became heir presumptive to the throne after her uncles’ claims.
Princes Charlotte was interred at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on the 19th November 1817 with great ceremony. Her memorial there, shown below, which also is a memorial to her still-born son,who can be sen in the arms of the Angel to the left of the memorial, is to my mind, incredibly moving, and was created by M.C.Wyatt
In another echo of the uproar caused by Princess Diana’s death, the memorial was paid for by pubic subscription, for so many people wanted to contribute something meaningful as a lasting memory to their Princess. The story of the subscription is related on the blog of The College of St Geroge’s and I quote from it here:
The money required to cover its cost was raised through private subscription as early as 1817, the same year as the Princess’s death. A list of subscribers who donated money was published in The Times newspaper in 1818. Subscribers were urged to write their names legibly on their subscription papers as mistakes were sometimes unavoidable when the newspapers were written and subsequently printed (The Times, 13th January 1818).
There were certain members of the public, however, who felt the money being raised could be used towards greater causes. One reader of The Times brought forward this suggestion in a letter to the editor: ‘The season is now approaching when the opera is to open: in support of its ballets, female children, from the age of 6 to 16, are brought forward: their remuneration for a season of 60 nights, is not more than 41.4s for each child: here is gain at the expense of eternal happiness, interdependent of the vice which is disseminated by their intercourse with those of their own age.’ (The Times, 25th December 1817). Another writer earnestly pleaded that the monument (whatever it turned out to be) should at least ‘…record in some measure the virtues of the distinguished personate to whose memory it is raised. It is not to be the mere mausoleum of her exalted rank, nor the funeral urn of her personal grace and accomplishments; – it is to express the esteem entertained for qualities of another order.’ (The Times, 13th February 1818).
Other cheaper commemorative items were produced and I have collected a few, some of which I’ll share with you here:
The pieces are both made of pearlware, with lustre decoration. This is a small saucer, which has suitable mourning symbols around a stylised portrait of the dead princess-weeping willows,and a rather illiterate motto and command : Britain Mourns Her Princes Weep!(sic)
The second is a much larger plate, again made of pearlware and decorated with a central panel full of mourning symbols…
Britannia , angels, etc. all distraught before an elaborate tomb.For those of you who are interested in these things, this plate will soon be seen on television, in the forthcoming second series of the BBC’s show, Antique Master
These were cheaply produced in their thousands, to satisfy a very large market. They are still affordable antiques today, and are not hard to find.
And so ends a rather sad tale of a very short Royal Marriage.
I do hope this week’s marriage lasts longer and is happier, and the parallels with Princess Diana end at this point. I am going to be celebrating not only The Wedding but my dear daughter’s 18th Birthday over the next few days, so I’ll not be posting here again until next Saturday, and this explains my rather long post today to make uo for my lack of posts over the coming week.
I wish you all a Happy Week, whatever you are watching;) Adieu !
Where do I begin …how on earth do I review this magnificent and comprehensive book in a few words?
It is, let me stress from the outset, the book I have always wanted to read on the church in 18th century Britain. For it not only covers the history of the fabulous new builds that took place during this century, and developments in architectural trends, with enough architectural plans to satisfy even me, but it also details the life of the church and churchgoers from cradle to grave, see the Funeral Ticket of Mrs Mary Thomas,below:
and the author writes in great and easily digested detail on how the church operated on a daily basis.
The author is a noted expert on the Anglican Church in the 18th century,and one of his earlier books is a favourite of mine, shown below, but I hesitated to reckoned it to you fearing it was of specialist interest only.
Not so with this latest book newly published by the ever excellent Yale.
This is a block buster of a book, comprehensively and beautifully illustrated and very well written. Its only down side is its massive weight (I’m very glad I and it delivered and didn’t have to carry it home, my apologies my local independent bookseller).
It concentrates on the Anglican church and its life within these magnificent buildings, but does include chapters on Catholic chapels,Dissenting chapels, churches in the United States,country house chapels, such as the one at Stoneleigh,whose magnificent plaster ceiling is shown below:
and the Gothick revival chapel at The Vyne, in Hampshire,both places Jane Austen knew well.
This book is invaluable, for references to the Church in Jane Austens works abound,and if you ever wanted to know more of country house chapels the parish churhces or even the architects she mentions, then this is the book for you.
The chapel at Southerton in Mansfield Park was most surely based on the cool Palladainism of the chapel at Stoneleigh,whereas Fanny Price’s sympathies were mor in tune with ancient structures. The cover shows St Georges Parish Church, Hanover Square the church where the ever fashionably-minded Mary Crawford imagines Fanny and Henry Crawford will marry…
I am at your service and Henry’s, at an hour’s notice. I should like the scheme, and we would make a little circuit, and shew you Everingham in our way, and perhaps you would not mind passing through London, and seeing the inside of St. George’s, Hanover Square. Only keep your cousin Edmund from me at such a time: I should not like to be tempted.
Mansfield Park, Chapter 43
The book even makes mention of one of Jane Austin’s possibly less favoured architects, the architect appointed by Robert Ferrars friend, Lord Coutland, Joseph Bonomi:
“For my own part,” said he, “I am excessively fond of a cottage; there is always so much comfort, so much elegance about them. And I protest, if I had any money to spare, I should buy a little land and build one myself, within a short distance of London, where I might drive myself down at any time, and collect a few friends about me, and be happy. I advise everybody who is going to build, to build a cottage. My friend Lord Courtland came to me the other day on purpose to ask my advice, and laid before me three different plans of Bonomi’s. I was to decide on the best of them. ‘My dear Courtland,’ said I, immediately throwing them all into the fire, ‘do not adopt either of them, but by all means build a cottage.’ And that, I fancy, will be the end of it.
Sense and Sesnibility, Chapter 36.
The book is massive - just under 800 pages- and very heavy,and comes with a CD ROM of documentation of the design and construction histories of 272 ecclesiastical buildings. An elegant solution to space constraints.
It is however packed, simply packed, with fascinating information, about the church, the churches,the people who commissioned them and built them,and the lives of the congregation and priests within the churches themselves.
I highly recommend it to anyone interested in finding out more about the Church in Jane Austen’s day, its buildings and its operation, for she was so intimately connected to it, through her own family and through the lives of her imagined character. This book clears up many misunderstandings or puzzles arising from her works. I would urge you to buy it or seek a view of it in your nearest library.
The early 19th century was a very productive time for publishers of guides for the use of travellers who were discovering the joys of traveling in England and Wales. The restrictions on travel because of the wars with France meant that the domestic market was their only possible stamping ground..
As you know I love these types of books and thought that you may like to see some of the guides to London that someone like the Steele sisters might use to plot their next move from Bartletts Buildings…dreaming of the fashionable West and all its elegance, compared with the bustle of the city….
If they wanted to learn more of the historical background to London and its landmarks then they might refer to a set of publications like The Beauties of England and Wales by Edward Braylake Brayley and John Britton.
I wrote about the Middlesex volumes here (they contain of course all details of London for in the ealry 19th century London was to be found in the county of Middlesex). While they are not Guide Books per se, they do contain very interesting historical information about London and its main buildings.
But if the Steele sisters and their ilk wanted to know a little more about the workings of London’s sights, so as not to appear totally ignorant and so very obviously newly up from the country, then they needed a different sort of guide. One of my favourites is The Picture of London.
This was first issued in 1802 and the last was published in 1818.
They are very detailed guides of want to see and do when in London.They give fantastically detailed information, so that the traveller who was new to London would not feel awkward or idiotic. This extract below, for example ,is the information the Picture of London(1802) gives for Astley’s Amphitheatre in Bridge Street near Westminster Bridge:
This Theatre is situated in the Westminster-road near the bridge, and is built on the very ground on which Mr. Astley, sen. formerly exhibited feats of horsemanship and other amusements in the open air; the success and profits of which enabled him afterwards to extend his plan and erect a building, which, from the rural cast of the internal decorations he called the ROYAL GROVE.
In this theatric structure, stage exhibitions were given, while, in a circular area, similar to that in the present theatre, horsemanship, and other feats of strength and agility, were continued. About seven or eight years ago, it was accidentally burnt down, after which the present theatre was erected under the appellation of the AMPITHEATRE of ARTS.
The interior of the building, though for a summer theatre somewhat heavy in its style, has been rendered truly elegant by its late additional decorations; and the stage and scenery are also greatly improved. The horsemanship, for which a circular ride is provided, is still continued, though it forms a much smaller portion of the evening’s entertainment than formerly.
This theatre always opens on Easter Monday; and its amusements continue till October or November. There are two tiers of boxes, a pit, and gallery.
The prices of admission are four shillings, two shillings, and one shilling. The doors open at half past five, and the performances begin at half past six.
It really does contain everything you really needed to know, don’t you think?
These books were illustrated with engravings of the buildings they described.The early editions with full-page illustration of a single buildings, then the later versions, as in this plate from The Picture of London for 1810 tried to illustrate at least four buildings on one page, landscape form:
The last edition, of 1818, further simplified this by having four illustrations on one page all executed in a similar style,but placed them so that the book did not have to be turned to appreciate them:
These guides were all pocket-sized , 3 inches by 5 inches approximately, and could easily be carried around. They also included maps of London and sometimes of its environs, which folded out for ease of reference:
This is the map of London that was used in edition of The Picture of London from 1803 onwards.
One of the interesting things to note about these guides is that not much is known about the people who write and published them. The author of the Picture of London was John Feltham and try as I might I’ve not found any meaningful information about him. I fear he may have been one of a number of hack writer that the publishers employed to write copy. And indeed such was the nature of their work that not many of them used their own name, preferring pseudonyms.
The publisher of these books, Richard Phillips is a slightly different matter. There is a little more information available about him, and his life makes for interesting reading. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography actually has an entry for him and his early life was common place enough:
….the son of a Leicestershire farmer, was born in London; his name at birth may have been Philip Richards. He was sent to schools in Soho Square and at Chiswick by his uncle, a brewer in Oxford Street, but his home surroundings were distasteful to him, and in 1786 he started on his own account as usher in a school at Chester. In 1788 he moved to Leicester, where he invested his small means in a commercial academy in Bond Street. A year later he opened a hosier’s shop, which he stocked with borrowed capital; but it was not until the summer of 1790, when he commenced business as a stationer, bookseller, and patent medicine vendor, that he found his proper vocation. He soon added a printing press, and, when his already heterogeneous business began to prosper, he expanded by selling pianofortes, music, caricatures, and prints, and running a circulating library.
He held somewhat unorthodox views on most subjects. For example, he really did believe that Newtons theory on gravity was idiotic. He was a radical and held strong republican political views and even served 18 months in Leicester gaol for publishing a copy of Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man. For such a radical it is surprising to realise that he was knighted. This event occurred in 1808 rather in the manner I have always thought Sir William Lucas received his knighthood from the King:
At midsummer 1807 Phillips was elected a sheriff of London, and as the bearer of an address from the corporation to George III, he was knighted by the king on 30 March 1808. During his shrievalty Phillips established the sheriff’s fund for the relief of poor debtors, and placed the sponging-houses under better regulations. In this capacity he wrote and published A Letter to the Livery of London Relative to the Duties and Office of Sheriff (1808), and A Treatise on the Powers and Duties of Juries, and on the Criminal Laws of England (1811).
)(Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online version )
I do wonder if George III had a liking for people who were as eccentric as himself…?
Another London guide writer I can find no information about is David Hughson, Doctor of Law. He is sometimes referred to as David Pugh. It’s all very mysterious. In any event, his books are fabulously detailed and very worthwhile obtaining. One of the most useful for people visiting London was his two-volume work, Walks through London, a larger format series of books than The Picture of London.
This is a series of walks, each illustrated by a detailed map, as below of the area around the Tower of London (and please do remember you can enlarge these illustrations by clicking on them)
These maps were supplemented by individual plates of interesting or notable buildings, as in this one of Fishmongers Hall
For the traveller interested in the then countryside around London, Hughson also produced a series of books from 1805-1819 London being an accurate History and Description of the British Metropolis and its Neighbourhood to Thirty Miles Extant
This was a part work, issued gradually and eventually it comprised six volumes, copiously illustrated with single plates, as in this one, below, of Carlton House ,the London home of the Prince of Wales.
The engravings in these books are fabulous, very detailed and are by far my favourites of this type. Each includes a vignette of life in early 19th century London, and they have a charm not many other engravings possess. Such a pity I cannot find out anything about Dr Hughson..if indeed that was his real name.
Like this:
Poor Blake Ritson has had to make his excuses and cannot now attend the evening in Chawton on Saturday the 9th April (which is this coming Saturday) as he is now committed to a days filming. But the good news is that Charity Wakefield will be able to attend in his stead and therefore this will be a marvellous opportunity to meet two of the Dashwood sisters as they were portrayed in the latest BBC adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.
Hattie Morahan, shown below in her role as Elinor……
and Charity Wakefield, shown below portraying Marianne
will be meeting everyone for a pre-performance gathering in the new Learning Centre at the Museum from 7 p.m., and then they will give a talk followed by a question and answer session at Chawton village Hall. They are both marvellous actors and I’m sure this opportunity to put questions to the Dashwood sisters about their roles, and how they enjoyed playing and interpreting the differences between the sisters etc will be one not to miss. The two sisters and their relationships are one of the most interesting aspects of Sense andSensibility to me,and therefore this really is an opportunity not to be missed.
Tickets cost £17.50 each, concessions £15.00 (to include pre-performance glass of wine). Under 16 tickets will cost £10.00 each.
Places are very limited so please do telephone the museum to book on 01420 83262 as soon as possible to secure your place.
Like this:
The latest tranche of Hugh Thomson’s illustrations for Sense and Sensibility are an interesting bunch. The first is a complex drawing and portrays for more than the quotation,
“I declare they are quite charming”
suggests. Mrs Palmer is referring to the drawings adorning the room in Barton Cottage where she and Mr Palmer have just been brought to meet the Dashwoods. If you will allow I’ll quote the passage in full for you, below so that you can judge the complexity of the drawing for yourself.
“You may believe how glad we all were to see them,” added Mrs. Jennings, leaning forwards towards Elinor, and speaking in a low voice as if she meant to be heard by no one else, though they were seated on different sides of the room; “but, however, I can’t help wishing they had not travelled quite so fast, nor made such a long journey of it, for they came all round by London upon account of some business, for you know” (nodding significantly and pointing to her daughter) “it was wrong in her situation. I wanted her to stay at home and rest this morning, but she would come with us; she longed so much to see you all!”
Mrs. Palmer laughed, and said it would not do her any harm.
“She expects to be confined in February,” continued Mrs. Jennings.
Lady Middleton could no longer endure such a conversation, and therefore exerted herself to ask Mr. Palmer if there was any news in the paper.
“No, none at all,” he replied, and read on.
“Here comes Marianne,” cried Sir John. “Now, Palmer, you shall see a monstrous pretty girl.”
He immediately went into the passage, opened the front door, and ushered her in himself. Mrs. Jennings asked her, as soon as she appeared, if she had not been to Allenham; and Mrs. Palmer laughed so heartily at the question as to shew she understood it. Mr. Palmer looked up on her entering the room, stared at her some minutes, and then returned to his newspaper. Mrs. Palmer’s eye was now caught by the drawings which hung round the room. She got up to examine them.
“Oh! dear, how beautiful these are! Well, how delightful! Do but look, mama, how sweet! I declare they are quite charming; I could look at them for ever.” And then sitting down again, she very soon forgot that there were any such things in the room.
Chapter 19
Thomson of course , (how could he possibly resist ?) shows us the taciturn Mr Palmer buried in the newspaper, and, or so it seems to me, the conversation Mrs Jennings has with Elinor about her worries for her daughter health during her pregnancy, quoted in the passage above. Here, I think Thomson gives us a hint about Mrs Jennings true nature- that she is above all a kind woman, and this is the first hint we have in the text that she is not just a matchmaking gossip.When the chips are down, Mrs Jennings knows how tobe a nurse and a true friend. As the reader will discover much later in the book. I’m glad to see that Thomson gives, in his illustration, a hint to the reader too…
The second illustration really needs no explanation. It shows the sycophantic and socially ambitious Miss Steeles being tormented by the spoilt and indulged children of Lady Middleton.
When their promised visit to the Park and consequent introduction to these young ladies took place, they found in the appearance of the eldest, who was nearly thirty, with a very plain and not a sensible face, nothing to admire; but in the other, who was not more than two or three and twenty, they acknowledged considerable beauty; her features were pretty, and she had a sharp, quick eye, and a smartness of air, which though it did not give actual elegance or grace, gave distinction to her person. Their manners were particularly civil, and Elinor soon allowed them credit for some kind of sense, when she saw with what constant and judicious attentions they were making themselves agreeable to Lady Middleton. With her children they were in continual raptures, extolling their beauty, courting their notice, and humouring all their whims; and such of their time as could be spared from the importunate demands which this politeness made on it, was spent in admiration of whatever her ladyship was doing, if she happened to be doing anything, or in taking patterns of some elegant new dress, in which her appearance the day before had thrown them into unceasing delight. Fortunately for those who pay their court through such foibles, a fond mother, though, in pursuit of praise for her children, the most rapacious of human beings, is likewise the most credulous; her demands are exorbitant; but she will swallow anything; and the excessive affection and endurance of the Miss Steeles towards her offspring, were viewed therefore by Lady Middleton without the smallest surprise or distrust. She saw with maternal complacency all the impertinent incroachments and mischievous tricks to which her cousins submitted. She saw their sashes untied, their hair pulled about their ears, their work-bags searched, and their knives and scissars stolen away, and felt no doubt of its being a reciprocal enjoyment. It suggested no other surprise than that Elinor and Marianne should sit so composedly by, without claiming a share in what was passing.
Chapter 21
I do think the Miss Steeles ought to look a little bit more pleased about the shenanigans of the Middleton children….what do you think?
The last illustration for this week is very subtle but good, in my opinion. This is the passage to which it refers:
To do him justice, he (Sir John Middleton-jfw) did everything in his power, to promote their unreserve, by making the Miss Steeles acquainted with whatever he knew or supposed of his cousins’ situations in the most delicate particulars, — and Elinor had not seen them more than twice, before the eldest of them wished her joy on her sister’s having been so lucky as to make a conquest of a very smart beau since she came to Barton.
“‘Twill be a fine thing to have her married so young, to be sure,” said she, “and I hear he is quite a beau, and prodigious handsome. And I hope you may have as good luck yourself soon, — but perhaps you may have a friend in the corner already.”
Elinor could not suppose that Sir John would be more nice in proclaiming his suspicions of her regard for Edward, than he had been with respect to Marianne; indeed it was rather his favourite joke of the two, as being somewhat newer and more conjectural; and since Edward’s visit, they had never dined together, without his drinking to her best affections with so much significancy, and so many nods and winks, as to excite general attention. The letter F — had been likewise invariably brought forward, and found productive of such countless jokes, that its character as the wittiest letter in the alphabet had been long established with Elinor.
Chapter 21
SIr John is shown at the head of his table , throughly enjoying himself, raising a glass with which to toast Elinor taking the opportunity each time to tease her about her supposed affection for Edward Ferrars. He is not being malicious, because he really does very simply consider that it is entirely natural for every girl to have or want a “beau”. But poor Elinor…look at her body language. Stiff but slightly bowed. She is mortified. I think this illustration is one of the best in the book. And just look at the servant hovering by the screen. Sir John’s pleasantries will be reported downstairs, of that we can be certain….
Like this:
Characteristically, Jane Austen is sparse in her description of Barton Park, the home of the affable Sir John and the sadly less than pleasant Lady Middleton in Sense and Sensibility:
Barton Park was about half a mile from the cottage. The ladies had passed near it in their way along the valley, but it was screened from their view at home by the projection of an hill. The house was large and handsome; and the Middletons lived in a style of equal hospitality and elegance.
Sense and Sensibility, Chapter 7
However, for many people it has been considered that Pynes, a fine William and Mary house in Devon, just outside Exeter and pictured above, was Jane Austen’s model for Barton Park, and further that she most probably visited it when she was holidaying in Devon with her family either in 1801 and 1802.
This is my copy of the acquaint of Pynes that appeared in Ackermann’s Repository of the Arts etc., in February 1825;
In her book In the Steps of Jane Austen, Anne -Marie Edwards has this to say in support of her contention that Pynes was the inspiration for Barton Park:
Although there is no written evidence to support my belief I have planned this part of the walk to explore what I think is the part of the Exe valley which Jane calls Barton in Sense and Senibility….Jane always wrote about places she knew, and she must have and a specific large estate in mind. I feel sure her “Barton Park” is Pynes still, as in the novel, a “large and handsome house”. Then as now , it was the home of the Northcote family. The Dowager Countess of Iddesleigh(a title taken by the Northcotes) told me that traditionally Pynes has alwasy been linked with the novel and her view was confirmed by other local people. It seems likely that Jane and her family , while they were on holiday in Devon, were invited to stay there. They would probably have stayed at Pynes several days and Jane would have and time to enjoy some of the beautiful country walks that are undertaken by the equally energetic Elinor and Marianne in the novel. The village of “Barton” on the hill side, close to Barton Park, corresponds exactly with Upton Lyne. I tis more difficult to place “Barton Cottage: which we are told is about half a mile from Barton Park. No site seemed to me to fit all the clues given in the novel. However as I explored the area I concluded that Jane possibly imagined the cottage to be near the farm at Woodrow Barton-a suggestion that was first made to me by Mrs E .M.Cornall who lives locally….
( page 102)
This is a section from my 1812 copy of John Cary’s map of Devon which has been annotated to show the approximate situation of Upton Pyne ( indicated by the black arrow) in relation to Exeter and Crediton:
This is all very plausible, isn’t it? Save for the fact that we know that Jane Austen did indeed write about places she had never visited, and in fact the grater part of Mansfield Park is set in a county she had never visited once! However, for those of you who tend to the view that Pynes was the model for Barton Park, then, listen! A rare opportunity presents itself, for you now have the chance to purchase the house and 37 acres of parkland surrounding it.
The house is also currently being restored, and the current owner, Simon Robshaw, has very kindly consented to allow me to reproduce some of his photographs of the house so that you can see what it looks like today.
Situated 3 miles from the centre of Exeter, the house has six reception rooms, 10 attic rooms and a 37-acre park.
Pynes was originally the mansion for the Pynes Estate, which surrounds and protects the house principally to the north.
These views of the house show that it has not changed substantially since the Ackermann engraving at the top of this post was made nearly 200 years ago…
and the parkland is also very similar, with stunningly beautiful views of the Exe valley.
This is a view of the very grand Entrance Hall being restored…
This is the marvellous stained glass window in the Staircase Hall
Here we have a view of the Drawing Room…
and below of the Dining Room, which does seem large enough to satisfy such a determined party giver as Sir John.
And here is the Billiard Room.
The house is no for sale with Savills estate agents: go here to see. And whatever your thoughts on it being Barton Park or not, I think you have to agree it is a most pretty and desirable place to live.
…then hie thee to Chawton on Saturday the 9th April, when the actors Hattie Morahan( who played Elinor in the BBCs latest production of Sense and Sensibility) and Blake Ritson ( Edmund in ITVs production of Mansfield Park and the odious Mr Elton in the BBC latest production of Emma) will be paying a visit to the Jane Austen House Museum and Chawton Village Hall to take part in a very special actors panel entitled Always Acting a Part: A Panel of Austen Actors
This is a marvellous and rare opportunity to meet these two wonderful actors, to hear their thoughts on playing some of Jane Austen’s most interesting characters and also to put to them any questions you have as to how they prepared for these roles and also how they interpreted their characters in the recent adaptations.
The Panel Discussion, which is part of the Jane Austen’s House Museum’s celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s first novel Sense and Sensibility, will take place in Chawton Village Hall and commences at 8.00pm, but before that there will be a Pre-Performance Gathering in the Learning Centre at the Museum from 7.00pm
Tickets are now available to book from the Jane Austen House Museum at the following prices : £17.50, Concessions £15.00 (to include pre-performance glass of wine). Under 16s £10.00. To book please telephone 01420 83262
And I’d hurry if I were you as I’m sure these tickets will soon be sold out! It’s not every day you have the opportunity to see (and more importantly hear!) Elinor Dashwood, Edmund Bertram and Mr Elton in the same room…;)
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The Tourist Office at Winchester have produced a new Jane Austen Trail leaflet and website to celebrate this years 200th Anniversary of the first publication of Sense and Sensibility. They are both very interesting and will be very useful for visitors to Hampshire this summer who want to visit the main Jane Austen sites, for not only does the trail and website give historical data but much-needed travel information: this will be invaluable to Austen-tourists not familiar with the area.
The trail plots the Jane Austen’s life in Hampshire chronologically, and includes information on Chawton Cottage, her family home from 1809 until 1817 and now the Jane Austen House Museum, which was of course where she composed and revised her six marvellous adult novels, and her final, unfinished work, Sandition.
I might quibble with about the veracity of a few of the statements in the leaflet, but then that’s just me being über picky 
It is in fact generally very helpful, and I do like that it includes detail not only on the well-known Jane related sites such as Steventon, Chawton and Winchester, but also Southampton and Portsmouth (However, sadly I note that the Coastal Jaunts part of the website is not accessible to me : too many redirects)
The website is accessible here and the leaflet can be downloaded as a pdf. document here.
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Today we reach the third in our series on Thomson’s illustrations for Sense and Sensibility, which we are working on as part of our year of celebrating the 200th anniversary of the first publication of the book. Out first illustration this week shows a very startled Mrs Dashwood, Elinor and Margaret, witnessing Marianne’s burst of emotion on quitting the room where she had been talking alone with Willoughby.(Do note the illustrations can all be enlarged by clicking on them)
Mrs. Dashwood’s visit to Lady Middleton took place the next day, and two of her daughters went with her; but Marianne excused herself from being of the party under some trifling pretext of employment; and her mother, who concluded that a promise had been made by Willoughby the night before of calling on her while they were absent, was perfectly satisfied with her remaining at home.
On their return from the park they found Willoughby’s curricle and servant in waiting at the cottage, and Mrs. Dashwood was convinced that her conjecture had been just. So far it was all as she had foreseen; but on entering the house, she beheld what no foresight had taught her to expect. They were no sooner in the passage than Marianne came hastily out of the parlour apparently in violent affliction, with her handkerchief at her eyes; and without noticing them ran up stairs. Surprised and alarmed, they proceeded directly into the room she had just quitted where they found only Willoughby, who was leaning against the mantle-piece with his back towards them. He turned round on their coming in, and his countenance shewed that he strongly partook of the emotion which overpowered Marianne.
Chapter 15
Marianne’s distress (and that of Willoughby) indicate in the text that something truly dreadful has occurred while they were alone. It is the first real clue given to the reader that Willoughby might not be all that he seems. In Thomson’s illustration we are only shown Marianne’s acute emotion,and the reaction of the Dashwood ladies. Who only look slightly stiff and not particularly surprised. I would have liked to have seen a view into the parlour of Willoughby standing at the mantle piece in distress….what do you think? And why only partially show Margaret? This illustration does not really work for me I confess.
Our next illustration shows the moment that Marianne realises the gentleman on horseback is not Willoughby,and is eventually shown to be Edward Ferrars,who is at last calling on the Dashwood family at Barton Cottage.
She walked eagerly on as she spoke; and Elinor, to screen Marianne from particularity, as she felt almost certain of its not being Willoughby, quickened her pace and kept up with her. They were soon within thirty yards of the gentleman. Marianne looked again; her heart sunk within her: and abruptly turning round, she was hurrying back, when the voices of both her sisters were raised to detain her, a third, almost as well known as Willoughby’s, joined them in begging her to stop, and she turned round with surprise to see and welcome Edward Ferrars.
Chapter 16
Again I find there is something lacking in this illustration: if I have a criticism of Thomson’s work it is perhaps that he fails to adequately convey moments of high drama/ distress. Marianne looks merely slightly started here, not almost crushed by disappointment. I feel that Mr Thomson’s best work involved humour and not moments of drama…..what do you think?
This is again evidenced I think by the third of our illustrations today. Here we have the ever genial Sir John and his ally in all things involving gossip, Mrs Jennings, arriving at Barton Cottage to get that all important first viewing of the Dashwood’s hitherto unknown male guest.
Before the middle of the day, they were visited by Sir John and Mrs. Jennings, who, having heard of the arrival of a gentleman at the cottage, came to take a survey of the guest. With the assistance of his mother-in-law, Sir John was not long in discovering that the name of Ferrars began with an F, and this prepared a future mine of raillery against the devoted Elinor, which nothing but the newness of their acquaintance with Edward could have prevented from being immediately sprung. But, as it was, she only learned from some very significant looks, how far their penetration, founded on Margaret’s instructions, extended.
Chapter 18
This is perhaps my favourite of today’s illustrations,and I think shows that Thomson’s genius lay in portraying the amusing incidents/characters of the book. You can just see the delight on their faces as they weigh up the situation-a new man,whose name begins with an “F”….what sport we will have now…..no wonder one of the Dashwood’s loyal maids looks on almost pityingly…
The best representation of the two and of this passage in particular, in any adaptation(, in my very humble opinion ) is in Emma Thompson’s 1995 film version where Elizabeth Spriggs, of blessed memory, and Robert Hardy taunt Elinor, egged on by Margaret innocently joining in the fun. My only problem with the illustration is the age Thomson has decided to attribute to Mrs Jennings and Sir John: would they really have looked that old? Sir John is described in the text as being near forty years old. (This is something the film accentuated too)
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Since I began the series of posts about Hugh Thomson’s illustrations for Sense and Sensibility, (accessible here and here) they have generated a number of emails and comments, both here and on Twitter, about the correctness or not of the costumes worn by the characters. What period do they reflect? Are they accurate ? And how do they relate to the text? I thought it might be helpful and interesting to discuss them and to compare them with costumes of the period.
The style of the clothes, particularly the clothes worn by the female characters in the illustrations, suggest to me that Thomson set the novel very firmly in the period of the mid 1780s to the mid 1790s. To my eye none of the clothes worn by the female characters reveal any details of the fashions of the late 1790s, and certainly no one wears any dress that could be described as having the raised waist of the revolutionary Empire style. These waistlines are defiantly placed by Thomson along the line of a natural waist and are not raised to just below the bust line in any way.
So…why did Thomson use this period and not the costumes of the later period to reflect the time when Jane Austen was writing, adapting, revising the book in the mid to late 1790s and finally publishing her novel in 1811? It might be helpful, at this point, to look at the history of the evolution of this novel.
According to Cassandra Austen’s memorandum Sense and Sensibility was composed by Jane Austen in 1797. James Edward Austen Leigh’s Memoir of his aunt , first published in 1869, contains this passage about the novel and the work upon which it was based:
It was, however, at Steventon that the real foundations of her fame were laid. There some of her most successful writing was composed at such an early age as to make it surprising that so young a woman could have acquired the insight into character, and the nice observation of manners which they display. ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ which some consider the most brilliant of her novels, was the first finished, if not the first begun. She began it in October 1796, before she was twenty-one years old, and completed it in about ten months, in August 1797. The title then intended for it was ‘First Impressions.’ ‘Sense and Sensibility’ was begun, in its present form, immediately after the completion of the former, in November 1797 but something similar in story and character had been written earlier under the title of ‘Elinor and Marianne;’ and if, as is probable, a good deal of this earlier production was retained, it must form the earliest specimen of her writing that has been given to the world.
It is thought that Jane Austen began Elinor and Marianne sometime in 1795:
If so she may have used it ( her writing desk-jfw) during 1795 when she embarked on her first full length project- ’Elinor and Marianne’ the prototype ’Sense and Sensibility’. Family tradition recalled that this too was written in letters and read aloud in this from….
(see Jane Austen: A Family Record by Dierdre le Faye, page 89)
Apart from the “flashback” scenes recounted by Colonel Brandon, and possibly this passage in Chapter One of the novel which relates to events ten years prior to the beginning of the action in the novel, below, I cannot find any justification in the text for setting the novel as further back in time than 1795:
The late owner of this estate was a single man, who lived to a very advanced age, and who for many years of his life had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister. But her death, which happened ten years before his own, produced a great alteration in his home; for to supply her loss, he invited and received into his house the family of his nephew, Mr. Henry Dashwood, the legal inheritor of the Norland estate, and the person to whom he intended to bequeath it.
However, I think that it may have been possible that Thomson was aware in 1895 when he was working on the illustrations, of the novel’s history, and that the novel had evolved from the first serious adult work that Jane Austen wrote in 1795. This may explain why he chose to depict a period of fashion prior to the mid to late 1790s. It is my opinion that he chose an earlier time period, which had a distinctly different dress style to that of 1811 when Sense and Sensibility was first published, to pay tribute to the history of this publication.( Of course, I may be completely wrong in my speculations…..)
We ought now to consider if the costumes as depicted were accurate for the time frame (1785-1795)that Thomson chose.
Let’s look at some examples from the period and compare them with the Thomson illustrations. I think you will see that there are many similarities between them but some important differences.
This is a drawing by Rowlandson of the actress, Mrs Abingdon, reclining on a couch circa 1786.
These are real examples of clothing from 1785, the costumes are part of the Kyoto Costume Institute’s collection.
This is Gainsborough’s famous portrait of Mrs Siddons dating from 1783-5…
And here is thomson’s Lady Middleton wearing a very similar style, including the hat….One of the first comments I noticed made about the costumes on Twitter was that , the hats are bigger than you will recall. Not necessarily so, bearing in mind the period Thomson was using.
And this is another work by Gainsborough, again dating from 1785, showing Mr and Mrs William Hallett in their Morning Walk……
Mrs Hallett’s gown is similar in style to the gown worn by Fanny Dashwood in this illustration.
And again the flounces found on some of Thomson’s dresses reflect those to be found in this Angelica Kauffman depiction of Lady Elizabeth Forster, companion of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, in 1786
Looking at the hairstyles we can see that Thomson tried to emulate the fashion of the pre- Revolutionary era, especially if we compare Marianne’s hairstyles with Gainsborough’s 1785 portrait of Miss Catherine Tatton, below.
But……despite being mainly true to the period he decided to adopt, there is something slightly amiss, isn’t there? To my eye the silhouettes drawn by Thomson reflect those of the women of his own era, the late Victorian. The Sense and Sensibility ladies are corsetted within an inch of their lives, and their waists seem far smaller than the more realistic waistlines of the clothes of the period, as is shown in this robe a l’anglaise circa 1790, again from the Kyoto Costume Institute’s collection:
And I do think that there is something indefinably late 19th century about the faces and the hats of the characters Thomson depicts.
Joan Hassell, the marvelous illustrator of Jane Austen for the Folio Society volumes which were published in the 1970s, had quite a lot to say about illustrator’s desperate attempts to be historically accurate, in an address she gave to the Jane Austen Society Annual General Meeting in 1973. Her comments which are pertinent to this discussion, and if you will allow I will quote her here:
It is a fact that the artist cannot detach himself from the period in which he lives. However hard he persuades himself that everything is historically accurate, there is always a give-away somewhere even though it takes a later generation to see it. It is most often to be seen in the ladies hair styles and a general favour in the type of figure; and this is also true of theatre productions where Edwardian ladies in carefully designed historic costume have discarded neither hair padding nor corsets. Nowadays we may pride ourselves as having more specialised knowledge ,but I have a suspicion that future ages will be able to spot the date of our work by the 70s-ish slant to which we ourselves are blind
(Folio,the Quarterly Magazine of the Folio Society, Summer 1975 pp 3-4)
And this I think is what has happened here. The hair styles are nearly correct, but not quite. The wasitlines are smaller than corsets of the 1780s-1795 would allow….the same with the crowns of the hats…and the flounces.
Thomson quite rightly tried to convey to the reader the fact that the novel was of a long gestation period, and dated the clothes from the period immediately proceeding its composition and publication to reflect this. Though he was generally accurate in depicting the clothes of the period 1785-1795, in my view he could not escape the influences of his own period, that of the late Victorian, and it is the tiny differences in the stylistic details that do not ring true to us today.
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Today I have something really special to offer you, an interview with Louise West, who has recently been appointed as the Curator of the Jane Austen House Museum at Chawton. She has succeeded the redoubtable and rather wonderful Mr Tom Carpenter in the role and was the Education Officer at the Museum for many years prior to this appointment.
A few weeks ago I asked Louise if she would give us an interview, for I knew you would like to get to know her a little better, especially as she is the person who is now caring for Jane Austen’s very important Chawton Home. Amazingly, she agreed to do it….
So, here it is. I do hope you find it interesting.
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Louise, you have worked at the Jane Austen’s House Museum for some years, first as the education officer and now as the curator, can you tell us when and how you first become interested in Jane Austen?
I was aware of her from a very young age and in my bedroom there was a copy of Pride and Prejudice with illustrations by Brock which my mother had received as a school prize in the 1930’s. I first read beyond Chapter One when I was 15 (tried at 12 and got nowhere) and have been hooked ever since.
This is the question most Janeites hate, because it is almost unanswerable, but I’ll ask it anyway: which is your favourite Jane Austen novel and why?
Emma. It was my A level text so I knew it in detail from early on but it still surprises me. It’s also cheered my through sad times in my life.
Many people associate Bath with Jane Austen and are not aware of the treasures to find at Chawton. They often think it is difficult to access (most emphatically, it is not!) Yet too many people visiting the museum might endanger it’s unique and very special atmosphere. This is obviously a delicate balance to maintain, and I’d like to know what is your long-term vision for the museum, and your thoughts on attracting visitors to the house.
Let me say first of all that I can understand why people associate Bath with Jane Austen. It is after all a Regency town and includes places specifically included in her novels. However, I do want people in this country and worldwide to associate Chawton and Hampshire in their mind with Jane Austen, because this was her home county and Chawton Cottage (now Jane Austen’s House Museum) was actual home. More importantly it’s the home where she did the majority of her writing – the reason for her fame!
The numbers game is tricky but I would confidently say that we are nowhere near breaking point. There are times that are particularly busy in the summer but then there is always the garden to explore. The winter months of November, December, February and March can be quite quiet and visitors can enjoy the special atmosphere of the house sometimes on their own.
We do want to encourage repeat visits and we are lucky that over the next few years we have the bicentenaries of all the novels to celebrate.
The next seven years are very exciting ones for Janeites with so many important bi-centenaries on the calendar, culminating in 2017 with the bicentenary of Jane Austen death. How will the museum be celebrating this year’s 200th anniversary of the first publication of Sense and Sensibility?
In many ways. All our events this year are themed around Sense and Sensibility, and these will include concerts, talks and relevant displays. (Go here to see more details of the events.) We will be having regular readings from the novel by our staff and volunteers who have been helped by our wonderful patron, Elizabeth Garvie. (Whom you will all recognize in her photograph, below, for she is a general Janeite favourite, her portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet in the 1981 production of Pride and Prejudice produced by the BBC is considered one of the best, and her stage performances in A Celebration of Jane Austen, with her late husband, Anton Rogers and now with Robert Powell, are acclaimed- jfw)
May I ask about the new edition of about the new edition of Sense and Sensibility that the Jane Austen House Museum is publishing this year? Is this going to be the first of a series of all six of the novels? Can you let us have some details about the book: for example, will it be published in hardback and paperback format, will it be annotated and will it be illustrated? And can we order it from the Museum shop?
We are very excited about this venture as you can imagine – publishing Jane’s first novel 200 years after it was first published from this very house. Our aim at this stage is certainly to publish all 6 novels in the same format over the next few years. It will be a hardback copy with covers very similar to the original board ones, but it will be in one volume and not three. As with the original it will not be annotated or illustrated, but, it will have a foreword by our patron, Professor Kathryn Sutherland, renowned Austen scholar, from Oxford University. Yes, you will be able to order it from the museum shop.
The newly refurbished kitchen has been beautifully renovated, and is a wonderfully inviting space. Do you have any plans to use it for public events, and do you plan to use it in conjunction with Martha Lloyd’s amazing household book?
We already use the kitchen for certain events. We have held herb workshops in there and we often use it for intimate sessions with small groups. It’s also a very nice venue for refreshments at evening events. We do have plans to use the recipe book in new and creative ways, but these are still in development. Watch this space!
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This all sounds rather exciting, intriguing and yet comforting at the same time. It is wonderful to note that Jane Austen’s house is in such good and capable hands, and I do look forward to the development of Chawton under Louise’s tenure very much. I should like to thank her for her time and for her gracious answers to my rudimentary questions, and I hope many of you will visit Louise at the Museum.
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Today we continue our series of posts on the illustrations made by Hugh Thompson for the Macmillan edition of Sense and Sensibility in the late nineteenth century. Do remember that they can all be enlarged , in order to examine the detail, merely by clicking on them.
In the first we see Marianne and Willoughby at the pianoforte, in Chapter 10:
Willoughby, on his side, gave every proof of his pleasure in their acquaintance, which an evident wish of improving it could offer. He came to them every day. To inquire after Marianne was at first his excuse; but the encouragement of his reception, to which every day gave greater kindness, made such an excuse unnecessary before it had ceased to be possible by Marianne’s perfect recovery. She was confined for some days to the house: but never had any confinement been less irksome. Willoughby was a young man of good abilities, quick imagination, lively spirits, and open, affectionate manners. He was exactly formed to engage Marianne’s heart; for, with all this, he joined not only a captivating person, but a natural ardour of mind, which was now roused and increased by the example of her own, and which recommended him to her affection beyond everything else.
His society became gradually her most exquisite enjoyment. They read, they talked, they sang together; his musical talents were considerable; and he read with all the sensibility and spirit which Edward had unfortunately wanted.
Chapter 10
These illustrations, early in the book, are quite clever, for they do not give any indication of any real impropriety by Willoughby. He is depicted as a handsome, fashionably dressed fellow, clearly devoted to Marianne and their joint pursuits.
The next illustration, from Chapter 12, might send alarm bells ringing faintly in the reader attuned to Jane Austen’s moral code. Willoughby takes a lock of Marianne’s hair, an intimate action, suggesting that their relationship at the very least was on the verge of becoming formalised by an engagement, or indeed, that such an agreement had already been settled between them:
Margaret related something to her the next day, which placed this matter in a still clearer light. Willoughby had spent the preceding evening with them, and Margaret, being left some time in the parlour with only him and Marianne, had had opportunity for observations, which, with a most important face, she communicated to her eldest sister, when they were next by themselves.
“Oh! Elinor,” she cried, “I have such a secret to tell you about Marianne. I am sure she will be married to Mr. Willoughby very soon.”
“You have said so,” replied Elinor, “almost every day since they first met on High-church Down; and they had not known each other a week, I believe, before you were certain that Marianne wore his picture round her neck; but it turned out to be only the miniature of our great uncle.”
“But indeed this is quite another thing. I am sure they will be married very soon, for he has got a lock of her hair.”
“Take care, Margaret. It may be only the hair of some great uncle of his .”
“But indeed, Elinor, it is Marianne’s. I am almost sure it is, for I saw him cut it off. Last night after tea, when you and mama went out of the room, they were whispering and talking together as fast as could be, and he seemed to be begging something of her, and presently he took up her scissars and cut off a long lock of her hair, for it was all tumbled down her back; and he kissed it, and folded it up in a piece of white paper, and put it into his pocket-book.”
From such particulars, stated on such authority, Elinor could not withhold her credit: nor was she disposed to it, for the circumstance was in perfect unison with what she had heard and seen herself.
Chapter 12
And now the alarm bells are beginning to ring even louder with the third of our illustrations today from Chapter 13. Here we have Mrs Jennings happily relating to all and sundry the rather surprising news that Marianne toured Allenham with Willoughby (without having first been introduced to Mrs Smith, the owner), contradicting their story that their day had been spent riding about the lanes in the countryside, after the visit to Whitwell had been cancelled:
It was settled that there should be a dance in the evening, and that everybody should be extremely merry all day long. Some more of the Careys came to dinner, and they had the pleasure of sitting down nearly twenty to table, which Sir John observed with great contentment. Willoughby took his usual place between the two elder Miss Dashwoods. Mrs. Jennings sat on Elinor’s right hand; and they had not been long seated, before she leant behind her and Willoughby, and said to Marianne, loud enough for them both to hear, “I have found you out in spite of all your tricks. I know where you spent the morning.”
Marianne coloured, and replied very hastily, “Where, pray?” –
“Did not you know,” said Willoughby, “that we had been out in my curricle?”
“Yes, yes, Mr. Impudence, I know that very well, and I was determined to find out where you had been to. I hope you like your house, Miss Marianne. It is a very large one I know, and when I come to see you, I hope you will have new-furnished it, for it wanted it very much, when I was there six years ago.”
Marianne turned away in great confusion. Mrs. Jennings laughed heartily; and Elinor found that in her resolution to know where they had been, she had actually made her own woman enquire of Mr. Willoughby’s groom, and that she had by that method been informed that they had gone to Allenham, and spent a considerable time there in walking about the garden and going all over the house.
Chapter 13
Again this is another rather clever illustration: Thomson shows us only the backs of the figures of Marianne and Willoughby, but shows the wicked glee with which Mrs Jennings relates her gossip, and the startled nature of Elinor’s reaction( she is shown sitting next to Mrs Jennings, if I interpret this scene correctly).
Everyone in their circle is now assuming what Mrs Jennings is actually articulating, that Marianne and Willoughby must be engaged or on the very point of being so attached, for their behaviour suggests it. The alarm bells are now ringing loud and clear to the attuned reader. And, as a result of their disrespectful and deceitful behaviour, it is evident that Elinor is hearing them loudly and clearly too…
