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If you would like to enter the Give-away Competition organised to celebrate the first anniversary of the Jane Austen’s House Museum’s blog then you have until the end of today 17th January to enter. You can do so by adding a comment to this post linked here.
The lucky winner will be announced next week, and the prize is a beautifully presented facsimile first edition of Jane Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility.
Good luck to everyone who enters!
Today in 1775, Jane Austen was born in Steventon. The Reverend George Austen, Jane’s father, wrote what I consider to be one of the nicest letters of announcement the following day:
You have doubtless been for some time in expectation of hearing from Hampshire and perhaps wondered a little we are in our old age grown such bad reckoners but so it was, for Cassy (Mrs Austen-jfw) certainly expected to have been brought to bed a month ago: however last night the time came and without a great deal of warning, everything was soon happily over. We have now another girl, a present plaything for her sister Cassy and a future companion. She is to be Jenny, and seems to me as if she would be as like Henry, as Cassy is to Neddy. Your sister, thank God is pure well after it and sends her love to you and my bother not forgetting James and Philly…
I thought you might like to know that today there have been some interesting announcements which might interest you…
First the Jane Austen’s House Museum Blog is holding its First Anniverasry Giveaway. The prize is rather spectacular, and the Giveaway is open to everyone, wherever you are in the world. All the details can be found, here.
And finally, in preparation for the year of Pride and Prejudice that is fast approaching, the Jane Austen’s House Musuem at Chawton in conjunction with the Jane Austen Society, the Jane Austen Society of North America and the Jane Austen Society of Australia, has just launched a special website, Pride and Prejudice 200, which will be the repository for all information about all the many and varied events that are going to be held to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s most celebrated novel. If you go here, you will be able to access it.
I thought you might care to see a post I wrote today on the Jane Austen’s House Blog about an item that has recently gone on display there: Charles Austen’s Sword. It is a very beautiful artefact, and takes my breath away each time I see it.
I thought you all might be interested to see a portrait of Edward Cooper, Jane Austen’s Evangelical cousin, rector of Hamstall Ridware in Staffordshire and friend of Thomas Gisborne. He was, or so it seems to me, a permanent irritant to Jane Austen, from the evidence of her letters.
The portrait is now on display at Jane Austen’s House in Chawton and if you click here you will be able to see it in a post I have written for the Museum’s blog.
On this, the 236th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, I really do hope ( fingers crossed!) that you will all be pleased to hear of my new venture.
I am terribly honoured to be involved with the launch of the Jane Austen’s House Museum’s new blog, which you can access here.
The idea behind the blog is to share the life of the museum with everyone, wherever you are in the world.
So….We will be bringing you news of the events and exhibitions held at the Museum, together with regular reports on the gardens, the objects in the museum’s collection and there will be also opportunities to virtually meet the staff, the volunteers and guests.
I do hope you will join us over there for all the fun, on the day when entrance to the museum is free and all visitors are offered a celebratory cup of coffee and a mince pie. On this cold, wintry and snowy day, reminiscent of the weather when Jane Austen was born in Steventon in 1775, I’m sure these offerings will be very welcome! Do join us, won’t you?
Some of the costmes from the latest BBC adaptation of Emma, starring Romola Garai as Emma and Jonny Lee Miller as Mr Knightley will be on show at the Jane Austen House Museum from the 1st April until the 16th May.
And in addition on the 7th May Rosalind Ebbutt, the BAFTA winning costume designer,
will give a talk on how she designed these costumes. Rosalind Ebbutt has designed costumes for many successful dramas, both modern and period, and according to the Events Page at the Museum’s website, has a wealth of interesting stories about her sources and inspiration.
There are going to be some really fascinating events at Jane Austen’s House over the next few months, and if you’d like to find out more about them , then do go here.
