Colin Firth

Jane Austen stayed in Lyme with her family in the summer of 1804 and used her impressions of the beautiful little seaside town as background for her novel Persuasion

 

Pyne House, Lyme Regis, where Jane Austen was thought to have stayed.

 

 

 

THE COBB

 

 

 

Since Jane visited in 1803 there have been alterations to the Cobb and the steps may have been different. 

 

In Persuasion there is a denouement at the point that Lousia Musgrove falls and cracks her head on the Cobb…….

“There was too much wind to make the high part of the new Cobb pleasant for the ladies, and they agreed to get down the steps to the lower, and all were contented to pass quietly and carefully down the steep flight, excepting Louisa; she must be jumped down them by Captain Wentworth. In all their walks, he had had to jump her from the stiles; the sensation was delightful to her. The hardness of the pavement for her feet, made him less willing upon the present occasion; he did it however; she was safely down, and instantly, to shew her enjoyment, ran up the steps to be jumped down again. He advised her against it, thought the jar too great; but no, he reasoned and talked in vain; she smiled and said, “I am determined I will”: he put out his hands; she was too precipitate by half a second, she fell on the pavement on the Lower Cobb, and was taken up lifeless!” 
360panoramas/cobb

She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow

On the 17th July the sun shone during the day and evening and rained at night time. Mary Austen, James’s wife ( Jane didn’t get on with her) wrote “ Jane Austen was taken for death about ½ past 5 in the evening” This was a seizure and Mr Lyford Jane’s doctor thought that a blood vessel had ruptured inside Jane’s head. Dr Lyford administered something, which Cassandra does not make clear in her letters afterwards. It was probably laudanum, a derivative of opium.

Some of the last recorded words of Jane’s are, “ God grant me patience, Pray for me oh Pray for me.” She had struggled somewhat during these last moments and had partly come off her bed. Cassandra got a stool and sat next to Jane resting her head in her lap. She sat like this for six hours before she had a rest and Mary Austen took over for the next two hours until 3am in the morning then Cassandra took over the position once again. An hour later Jane Austen breathed her last breath. She was pronounced dead at 4am. Cassandra closed Jane’s eyes.

A few days later the Salisbury and Winchester Journal wrote,“On Friday 18th inst. Died, in this city, Miss Jane Austen, youngest daughter of the late Rev. George Austen, rector of Steventon , in the county and authoress of Emma, Mansfield park, pride and prejudice and sense and Sensibility.”

Cassandra wrote to Fanny Knight  “ I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can be surpassed,-She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow, I had not a thought concealed from her, & it is if I had lost a part of myself.”

Four days later on the 24th July Jane was buried in the north aisle of Winchester cathedral. There has been some speculation as to how she was buried in such an honoured place. Her father was a local vicar, but that would not have been sufficient to get her a burial inside the cathedral. It might have been there was a friend of the family who was part of the diocesan hierarchy who got permission as a favour. 

Four days after the internment on the 28th July Cassandra got down to the business of sorting out formalities. She wrote to Anne Sharp;“ My dear Miss Sharp, I have great pleasure in sending you the lock of hair you wish for, and I add one pair of clasps which she sometimes wore and a small bodkin which she had had in use for more than twenty years.  ”janitesonthejames

Jane Austen Book bag

Commemorating the Anniversary of Jane Austen’s death with Roses.

Jane Austen died this day in 1817. Visitors to the Museum may not be aware that some of the plants in the garden have been carefully chosen to commemorate Jane Austen’s life.  

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Visitors to the museum enter the house via a side door, and next to it is the entrance to the kitchen. In the summer this is framed with fragrant pale pink roses.
The rose is Blush Noisette, which was first raised from seed in America by the French horticulturist, Philippe Noisette. He sent plants of the rose to his bother, Louis Claude Noisette, in Paris, and he introduced it to the pubic in 1817. Which was, of course, the year Jane Austen died. The rose is a vigorous survivor from that year, rather in the way Jane Austen’s works and reputation have survived and blossomed for nearly 200 years since her untimely death which we commemorate today.
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There are two roses growing here which neatly represent a link from Chawton with her final resting place, Winchester, and also with her enduring fame.
The beautiful white English Rose, Winchester Cathedral, which was bred by the famed rose breeder, David Austin, is planted in the borders surrounding the house. The rose is named after the place where Jane Austen died and was buried.
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She left her home at Chawton for the last time on the 24^th May 1817 in order to go to Winchester to be treated there. Her health was failing and she needed more expert care than could be provided by the local apothecary. She lived in lodgings in College Street, but her treatment there was not successful and she died on the 18^th July. She was buried in the north aisle of Winchester Cathedral. 



The rose is a beautiful creamy-white flower, and flowers throughout the season, and is a fitting link between the two places.
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 So, when you next visit the museum in summer do seek out these fragrant and very appropriately chosen roses, to remember the woman whose works have so enriched our lives.
Jane Austens house museum blog

SOLD. 152,450 GBP

ESTIMATE:  20,000 - 30,000 GBP  LOT SOLD. 152,450 GBP  (Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium) set with a cabochon blue stone, natural turquoise, size K½ with sizing band,once belonging to Jane Austen, in a contemporary jeweller's box ("T. West | Goldsmith | Ludgate Street | near St Paul's")

Autograph note signed by Eleanor Austen, to her niece Caroline Austen, "My dear Caroline. The enclosed Ring once belonged to your Aunt Jane. It was given to me by your Aunt Cassandra as soon as she knew that I was engaged to your Uncle. I bequeath it to you. God bless you!", 1 page, November 1863, with address panel on verso and remains of black wax seal impression, fold tears; also with three further notes by Mary Dorothy Austen-Leigh detailing the ring's later provenance, 5 pages, 1935-1962

sothebys/auctions

jane austen in vermont

Jane Austen's ring

On July 10, 2012, Sotheby’s in London will auction off a turquoise and gold ring which once belonged to Jane Austen. This rare piece of jewelry is expected to sell for which has a guide price of £20,000 to £30,000 (about $46,000).

Austen’s family put the ring on the market along with a November 1863 note from Jane's sister-in-law, Eleanor Austen to Jane's niece, Caroline Austen. "My dear Caroline," wrote Eleanor. "The enclosed ring once belonged to your Aunt Jane. It was given to me by your Aunt Cassandra as soon as she knew that I was engaged to your uncle. I bequeath it to you. God bless you!"

The ring has been in the Austen family for more than one hundred and fifty years. It is contained inside a box fashioned by a City of London goldsmith. "It's so unusual to find any personal possession of Jane Austen's. There's something very romantic about it," said Dr. Gabriel Heaton, Sotheby’s The auction will also include an 1813 first edition of Austen’s classic, Pride and Prejudice, which is expected to bring in a price of $30,00-45,000. Other items in the July 10 English Literature auction include a 1958 letter from Ernest Hemmingway to Peter Viertel complaining about the the movie adaptation of The Sun Also Rises. jane-austen-s-ring

P and G Wells bookshop in Winchester

P and G Wells as it was in Victorian times.

P. and G. Wells Ltd is situated at 11 College Street, Winchester in close proximity to Winchester Cathedral and Winchester College, and next door but one from the house where Jane Austen spent the last days of her life. It is a general bookshop with a bindery attached, running as a separate business. It is thought to be the oldest bookshop and bindery still in existence in the country.

P. and G. Wells as it stands today.

timwiltshire

 

The famous alcove in the Oak Room where Jane Austen is reputed to have enjoyed sitting

 

Read from: Austen only 

We can also deduce what Jane Austen might then have read and had access to, in addition to the books we know she referenced in her novels and letters. Burdon was entitled to be called the Austen family’s bookseller, because it would appear they had an account at the shop. In her letter to Cassandra Austen, her sister, of the 25th November 1798 she makes the following comment, referring to her father’s account at Burdon’s bookshop:

We have got “Fitz Albini”; my father has bought it against my private wishes, for it does not quite satisfy my feelings that we should purchase the only one of Egerton’s works of which his family are ashamed. That these scruples, however, do not at all interfere with my reading it, you will easily believe. We have neither of us yet finished the first volume. My father is disappointed – I am not, for I expected nothing better. Never did any book carry more internal evidence of its author. Every sentiment is completely Egerton’s. There is very little story, and what there is is told in a strange, unconnected way. There are many characters introduced, apparently merely to be delineated. We have not been able to recognise any of them hitherto, except Dr. and Mrs. Hey and Mr. Oxenden, who is not very tenderly treated…We have got Boswell’s “Tour to the Hebrides” and are to have his “Life of Johnson”; and, as some money will yet remain in Burdon’s hands, it is to be laid out in the purchase of Cowper’s works. Read more on: Austen only