The Real Jane Austen 2002

Jane Austen's House

Chawton Cottage

 

This is a fragment of the original wallpaper they found in the house

More beautiful pictures of Chawton Cottage on susanbranch/jane-austen-house-chawton-cassandras-

Cassandra Austen

Silhouette of Cassandra Austen, Jane's sister and closest friend

Two years after Cassandra’s birth, the Austens were blessed with a second daughter, Jane. Wherever Cassandra went, Jane followed. When 10-year-old Cassandra was sent off to boarding school in 1783, 8-year-old Jane demanded to go, refusing to be separated from her older sister……not because she was thought old enough to profit much by the instruction there imparted, but because she would have been miserable (at home) without her sister.

The sisters went to Mrs. Cawley, their uncle's sister, to be educated in 1783. Cawley lived initially in Oxford, and later in Southampton, and, when an epidemic broke out in Southampton, the Austen sisters returned to Steventon. Between 1785 and 1786 the sisters attended the Reading Ladies boarding school in the Abbey gatehouse in Reading, Berkshire. Jane was originally not to go, as she was considered to be too young for schooling, but ended up going along with Cassandra. In their mother's words, "if Cassandra's head had been going to be cut off, Jane would have hers cut off too".^[2]

 

The two Austen girls were  tutored at home in drawing and the piano. In 1791, Cassandra produced a series of circular illustrations of British monarchs for Jane's manuscript The History of England, which are noted to have resembled members of the Austen family more than royalty.^[1]

Cassandra Austen is also credited with having created two paintings of her sister. One, painted in 1804, is a back view of Jane seated by a tree. The other, an incomplete frontal portrait dated circa 1810,^[3] was described by a family member as being "hideously unlike" Jane Austen's real appearance. This sketch is now housed in the National Portrait Gallery, London.^[4] 

George Austen, the father of Cassandra and Jane was not wealthy and had supplemented his income as a country parson "by taking in pupils and tutoring them for Oxford".^[5] After graduating from Oxford University, in 1794, one former pupil, Thomas Fowle, became engaged to Cassandra Austen.^[5] Fowle needed money to marry and went to the Caribbean with a military expedition as chaplain to his cousin, General Lord Craven.^[5] There, Fowle died of yellow fever in 1797. Austen inherited £1000 from him, which gave her a little financial independence but, like her sister, she never married.^{[5] wiki/Cassandra_Austen} Cassandra benefited from an annuity left in his will (she inherited Tom’s savings of £1000 which yielded about £50 per year.)  cassandra-austen
 

 After moving to Chawton Cottage, Cassandra and Mrs. Austen took over most of the duties of the house and garden, allowing Jane to capitalize on the most fruitful period of her writing. Without Cassandra’s physical, mental and emotional support, and her brothers’ contributions to their annual income, Jane would not have had the freedom to actively pursue her career as a writer.

The sisters’ letters are at the heart of what we know—and will never know—about the bond they shared.

Jane died in 1817 in Winchester with her head placed in Cassandra’s lap. Writing to her niece Fanny, Cassandra said: “I have lost a treasure, such a Sister, such a friend as never can be surpassed, - She was the sun of my life….I had not a thought concealed from her, and it is as if I had lost a part of myself” (Letter, July 20th 1817).
 

The respect that Jane felt for her sister is clear from another quote found in Austen-Leigh’s memoir of his aunt: “even in the maturity of her powers, and in the enjoyment of increasing success, she would still speak of Cassandra as of one wiser and better than herself.” becomingjane

Cassandra was destined to long outlive her sister Jane. She continued on at Chawton with regular visits to her brothers, nieces and nephews. After Jane's death, Cassandra and Henry arranged the publication of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey and with those 1817 publications,

Most of what we know of Jane Austen today, we owe to her sister Cassandra. It was she who filled in gaps in her sister’s life for generations after, leaving an oral record to supplement the written. It was she who gave us the only two authenticated likenesses of her sister. It was she who, while she did destroy many of the letters, preserved the majority of her sister’s extensive writings and most importantly, it was she to whom the letters were written, without which we might never have known the human side of one of the world’s favorite authors. cassandra-austen

In 1827 Mrs. Cassandra Austen, the girls’ mother, died and was buried in the Chawton cemetery.

Austen's letters to Cassandra

jasna/The History

Elizabeth Bridges (1773-1808) and Goodnestone Park

Jane Austen was often in the company of the Bridges family at their home, Goodnestone Park, in Kent, after the marriage of her brother, Edward Austen, to their daughter, Elizabeth.  genealogy/bridges In fact, that young couple spent the first years of their marriage living in Rowling House on the Goodnestone estate before inheriting Godmersham, located only a few miles away. Both Jane and Cassandra were often to be found visiting their brother and his increasing family (which eventually included eleven children) and it is no doubt here, that she first experienced some of the more socially elevated company that she would later write about. Indeed, she began First Impressions, the novel that would eventually become Pride and Prejudice, after a visit to the Goodnestone in 1796 janeausten .

Elizabeth Bridges, Edward’s wife, lived before her marriage at Goodnestone Park with her parents Sir Brook Bridges and Lady Fanny and, until they  inherited Godmersham, Edward and Elizabeth lived in a smaller house on the Goodnestone estate (Rowling House).  When Jane visited her brother, she was often entertained at Goodnestone with dinners and dances. seekingjaneausten

Portrait miniature of Elizabeth Bridges Knight wearing a white dress with a blue ribbon tied under corsage. Watercolor on ivory, oval.
2 1/2 x 2 inches (6.5 x 5 cm).
Initialed “T.H.” (lower right).
A fine portrait miniature of Jane Austen’s sister in law, Elizabeth Bridges (1773-1808) who married Edward Austen, the brother of Jane Austen. Edward took the name of his second cousin Mr. Knight on inheriting in 1812 his estates in Kent at Godmersham Park. They had 11 children.
This lot sold with an uncolored print of Godmersham Park by Watts.
Literature: Country Life. 27 July 1987, ill. p.111.  Est. $2000 – 3000.

In August of 1796, Jane Austen made her first visit to Goodnestone Park, the home of Sir Brook Bridges, 3rd Baronet, and his wife Fanny (nee Fowler), who were the parents of her brother Edward’s wife, Elizabeth. Since their marriage in 1791, Edward and Elizabeth had been living at Rowling, a manor house within a stone’s throw of Goodnestone Park. As was her habit during her long sojourns in Kent (her initial visit lasted until October of 1796), Jane wrote her sister Cassandra to report:

“We are very busy making Edward’s shirts, and I am proud to say that I am the neatest worker of the party.” Her next letter sent more glamorous news: “We were at a Ball on Saturday. We dined at

Goodnestone and in the Evening danced two Country Dances and the Boulangeries. I opened the

Ball with Edwd Bridges…We supped there, and walked home at night under the shade of two Umbrellas.” Sounds quite nice, doesn’t it?

A lot of beautiful pictures of Goodnestone Park on elizabeth-bridges-austen

 (In Dutch) Lady FitzWalter had 57 jaar op Goodnestone Park gewoond. Toen ik haar bezocht had de weduwe van de 21ste baron FitzWalter net het landhuis verruild voor een cottage in het dorp. Haar jongste zoon had voor mij de afspraak met zijn moeder geregeld. Op Google las ik dat de douairière – zoals een adellijke weduwe heet – in 1923 is geboren. Ik had dus een afspraak met een 90-jarige. Nu heb ik niks tegen hoogbejaarden – sterker nog, ik hoop er zelf ooit een te worden – maar ik zag me al met een rietje in de weer om de douairière barones van thee te voorzien. Die oer-Hollandse stroopwafels die ik voor haar mee had gebracht zou ze nooit kunnen wegkrijgen. Gelukkig blijken vooroordelen zelden te kloppen. Lady Fitzwalter was een kwieke oude dame met een scherpe blik die me al stond op te wachten bij de poort. Terwijl we naar het restaurant van Goodnestone Park Gardens wandelden vroeg ze me de hemd van het lijf. Waar was ik eerder die dag geweest? Had ik al een bezoek gebracht aan Tonbridge, waar de vader van Jane Austen opgroeide? En Godmersham, het landhuis van Janes broer Edward, was ik daar al geweest? De douairière barones, zelf een groot Austen-fan, wilde weten hoe ver mijn kennis reikte. Ze stelde me vragen over Elizabeth Bridges, over haar zus die op dezelfde dag trouwde (een dubbel huwelijk, in welk Jane Austen boek komt dat ook voor?), jane-austen-reisgids

Jane Austen"s nephews and nieces

Jane_Austen_nephews_and_nieces

Children of Edward Knight and Elizabeth Bridges. Special Marianne Knight (May).

Marianne Knight was born in 1801.¹ She was the daughter of Edward Knight and Elizabeth Bridges

Photo: Edward Knight left
Photo: Elizabeth Bridges right

Children of Edward Knight and Elizabeth Bridges

• 11 children (Elizabeth dying in 1808, 2 days after the birth of the last) including:
  
  
  *Fanny Knight (1793-1882) (Jane Austen's favourite niece) who married Sir Edward Knatchbull (1820) & begat 9 children including Edward Hugessen Knatchbull (1829-1893) (1st Baron Brabourne 1880; edited 1884 Letters of Jane Austen). Fanny became simultaneously the sister-in-law and aunt as well as stepmother to her step-daughter Mary Dorothea Knatchbull when Mary Dorothea married Fanny's brother Edward (see below). 

• *Edward Knight (1794-1879) who married his step-niece Mary Dorothea Knatchbull in 1825 & begat 7 children and thence married Adela Portal in 1840 & begat a further 9 children.

 *George Knight (1795-1867) who married Hilare, Countess Nelson in 1837 (no issue).

 

*Henry Knight (1797-1843) who married firstly Sophia Cage and thence Charlotte Northey & begat children from both marriages.

 

*William Knight (1798-1873) who married firstly Caroline Portal and thence Mary Northey & begat children from both unions.

 

*Elizabeth Knight (1800-1884) who married Edward Royd Rice in 1818 & begat 15 children.

 

*Marianne Knight (1801-1896) who died unmarried.

 

*Charles Knight (1803-1867) who died unmarried.

 

*Louisa Knight (1804-1889) who married Lord George Hill in 1847 (after the death of her sister Cassandra Jane) & begat 1 child.

 

*Cassandra Jane (1806-1842) who married Lord George Hill in 1834 & begat 4 children.

 

*Brook John (1808-1878) who married Margaret Pearson (no issue). 

janeaustenand

 

Marianne Knight, one of Fanny's younger sisters, recalled "that when Aunt Jane came to us at Godmersham she used to bring the manuscript of whatever novel she was writing with her, and would shut herself up with my elder sisters in one of the bedrooms to read them aloud. I and the younger ones used to hear peals of laughter through the door, and thought it very hard that we should be shut out from what was so delightful." jasna

Edward Austen first took the name of Knight in addition to his own, but formally adopted the surname Knight in 1812. Of his eleven children, his daughter Marianne never married but lived at Godmersham with her father until his death in 1852, then with two of her brothers in turn, at Chawton till 1867 and Bentley till 1878, before ending her days with a niece in Ireland.

In around 1875 Marianne Knight was visited by a family friend, Miss Eleanor Glubbe, later Mrs Steele. Marianne Knight gave the pelisse to Miss Glubbe during the visit. In later years Mrs Steele wished to return the pelisse to the Austen family and sent it to Mrs Winifred Jenkyns, a great granddaughter of James Austen, Jane’s eldest brother, with a note that reads “I missed the little coat for a long time but lately it turned up. I cannot remember if it was 'Jane's' but it seems probable". austen-pelisse

The sister I enjoyed reading about most was Marianne (May). Her story  could have been heartbreaking, but her strength of character and bravery made it one of triumph over adversity. She never married but devoted herself to looking after her father and then,after his death,  her brothers. She did indeed begin life as  an Emma Woodhouse figure, the daughter of a great house, Godmersham in Kent, administering the household and overseeing the care of the poor in the parish under her care after the marriage of her sister Fanny. She eventually moved from Godmersham to Chawton where she lived with her brother Charles Bridges Knight, who was rector of Chawton, and like her Aunt Jane, she seems to have enjoyed her quiet, settled life in that village. But she ended her life as a Miss Bates, impoverished and without a real home to call her own, settling in Ballyarr in Donegal, with her widowed sister, Lou, where she eventually died. I loved her character, with its refusal to be cowed by circumstances, her positive outlook and above all, her humour. She did indeed seem to inherit some of her Aunt Jane’s strongest character traits. austenonly/book-review-of-maylou-and-cass-jane-austens-nieces-in-ireland-by-sophia-hillan/

New Bond Street

Bond Street, particularly New Bond Street, was considered to be the most fashionable shopping street in London from the eighteenth century right through the Regency. But all those rooms on the floors above the shops were not just relegated to the dwellings of the shop-keepers. Bond Street was a fashionable residential address and many shop-keepers let some or all of their upper rooms to distinguished lodgers, including Dean Jonathan Swift, George Selwyn, Edward Gibbon, William Pitt the Elder, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Sir Joshua Reynolds and James Boswell, most of whom lived in Old Bond Street. Some of those who took rooms in New Bond Street include Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir Walter Scott, Admiral Lord Nelson, and later, in a different house, Lady Emma Hamilton.

Bond Street was certainly the most fashionable shopping area of Regency London. The best dress-makers and tailors, jewellers and boot-makers, tobacconists and haberdashers all had well-appointed shops along that street. However, the overtly masculine atmosphere which prevailed along that street meant that young ladies, certainly gently-bred, unmarried ladies, must always be accompanied by a chaperon and must not be seen in public along that street anytime after mid-day. But keep in mind that mid-day in the Regency did not mean high noon, as we would assume today. Rather, young ladies would be expected to make themselves scarce by four or five o’clock in the afternoon. At that time, they should be strolling or driving through Hyde Park, or on their way home to change for dinner and their evening activities. They should most definitely not be seen strolling along Bond Street for any reason as the dinner hour approached. Mornings (in the Regency, the time between arising and dinner) on Bond Street belonged to the ladies. The remainder of the day on Bond Street belonged to the gentlemen.regencyredingote

One of the most up-market fabric shops were Wilding & Kent at Grafton house on the corner of New Bond Street and Grafton Street. On 17 April 1811 Jane and Manon, Eliza Austen’s maidservant,

‘…took our walk to Grafton House, & I have a good deal to say on that subject. I am sorry to tell you that I am getting very extravagant & spending all my Money; & what is worse for you, I have been spending yours too…’

she told Cassandra. It was a very busy shop and in November 1815 Jane complains of ‘the miseries’ of shopping there and most of her references to it mention an early start and long waits to be served – not that this stopped her going there frequently. janeaustenslondon/london-history

The streets were full of enormous coaches, sometimes gilt, hung on high springs, drawn by four, and even six horses; footmen, to the number of four or six, ran beside them, and the wheels splashed heavily in the dirt described, sending up the mud in black spurts. It was early in the nineteenth century that a new kind of paving was tried, blocks of cast-iron covered with gravel, but this was not a success. Resides the large coaches there were hackney coaches, which would seem to us almost equally clumsy and unwieldy. Omnibuses were not seen in the metropolis until 1823.

Hackney coaches were in severe competition with sedan chairs, for to call a chair was as frequent a custom as to send for a hackney coach. The chairmen were notorious for their incivility, just as the watermen had previously been, and as their successors, the cabmen, became later, though now the reproach is removed from them. These chairs were kept privately by great people, and often were very richly decorated with brocade and plush; it was not an unusual thing for the footmen or chairmen of the owner to be decoyed into a tavern while the chair was stolen for the sake of its valuable furniture. The chairs opened with a lid at the top to enable the occupant to stand up on entrance, and then were shut down; in the caricatures of the day, these lids are represented as open to admit of the lady's enormous feather being left on her head.
janeaustensworld/sedan-chairs
mollands

ST.LAWRENCE THE MARTYR CHURCH - GODMERSHAM, KENT

 

Elizabeth Bridges and Edward Austen are commemorated in the church of St Lawrence the Martyr at Godmersham, on a large memorial on the wall of the nave and also in a stained glass window in the chancel. There is too a memorial to Thomas and Catherine Knight, Edward’s adoptive parents.  

 

64 Sloane Street London, House of Henry Austen

The house in Sloane Street is still there, although at first glance it is unrecognisable as the one where Jane stayed.  In 1897 another floor was added and the whole house refaced, but embedded inside is the original house, built in 1780. It is even possible to see the outer bay of the octagonal room where Eliza held a party on 25 April 1811 – all you need to do is walk a little way down Hans Street and look back at the rear of the house. In the photograph the house is covered in scaffolding and undergoing yet more changes.

There is nothing Jane would have recognised in the scene today. Sloane Street was rebuilt, or, in many cases, refaced, in the late 19th century and the inns have all either disappeared or have been replaced by Victorian buildings on the same sites. janeaustenslondon

When Jane Austen visited her brother Henry in 1811, he lived in Sloane Street (today behind Harrods in Knightsbridge). At the time, the street was a wide thoroughfare that connected Knightsbridge with the west part of Pimlico and the east end of Chelsea. The area was still quite rural, for there was no development at the east side of Sloane Street before 1790.  In the late 18th century, the approach to London from this side was still regarded as a dangerous, for the area was rural and dimly lit. Chelsea, in fact, had just recently begun to be engulfed by a burgeoning London, but during Jane Austen’s day, the area was still quite bucolic and rural, as these images attest.

By the time Henry Austen moved to Sloane Street the neighborhood had changed enough for Jane to experience pleasant society, although ten years after Jane’s death, Greenwood’s Map (1827) still showed many empty lots and gardens in the vicinity. (See map above.)
While living in Sloane Street, Henry was a successful man:

Henry and two associates had founded a banking institution in London sometime between 1804 and 1806. Austen, Maunde and Tilson of Covent Garden flourished and enabled Henry and Eliza to move from Brompton (where Jane Austen had found the quarters cramped during a visit in 1808) to a more fashionable address and larger house at 64 Sloane Street. Jane’s visits here in 1811 and 1813 were happy events, filled with parties, theatre-going, and the business of publishing Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. – Henry Austen: Jane Austen’s “Perpetual Sunshine” by J. David Grey

 janeaustensworl

10 and 11 Henrietta Street, 1813

10 Henrietta Street is where author Jane Austen was staying (it was her brothers flat), when that she wrote most of her best letters. These letters have been published by Oxford University Press; the third edition by Deidre Le Faye who works at the British Museum. Actress, Amanda Root, unveiled a green plaque here in 1999 shadyoldlady

In 1813, Henry, who was four years older than Jane, lost his wife after a painful and debilitating illness. In contrast, his Uncle Leigh Perrot and brother Edward helped to secure his appointment as Receiver-General for Oxfordshire,  a most definite honor. Soon after Eliza’s death, Henry moved to rooms over Tilson’s bank on Henrietta Street in Covent Garden, a location more centrally located in London. Both Jane and Fanny Knight, their niece, visited him there in the spring of 1814, when Mansfield Park was with the publisher.

As was the custom, Jane brought lists of items to purchase  in Town for those who had remained behind in the countryside. In her biography, Constance Hill writes about Jane’s shopping experience:

“I hope,” she writes to her sister, “that I shall find some poplin at Layton and Shear’s that will tempt me to buy it. If I do it shall be sent to Chawton, as half will be for you; for I depend upon your being so kind as to accept it . . . It will be a great pleasure to me. Don’t say a word. I only wish you could choose it too. I shall send twenty yards.” Layton and Shear’s shop, we find, was at 11, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. digital.library./austen/

On 24th May 1813 Jane wrote, “I went the day before (Friday) to Layton’s as I proposed, & got my Mother’s gown, 7 yds at 6/6.” [ie six shillings and six pence a yard]

“We did go to Layton & Shear’s before Breakfast. Very pretty English poplins at 4 [shillings and] 3 [pence]. Irish ditto at 6 [shillings] – more pretty certainly – beautiful.” Later in the same letter she writes to Cassandra, “…I am going to treat myself with spending [my superfluous wealth myself. I hope at least I shall find some poplin at Layton & Shears that will tempt me to buy it. If I do, it shall be sent to Chawton, as half will be for you … I shall send 20 yards.”
 janeaustensworld

No. 10 was erected in 1726 under a sixty-oneyear building lease granted to Samuel Denton of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, linen draper. The first occupant was a Mr. Bedford Loddington. (ref. 40) Between 1807 and 1816 the house was occupied by the bankers Austen, Maunde and Tilson, of whom Jane Austen's brother Henry was a partner; the novelist herself stayed here with her brother in 1813 and 1814.

The interior of No. 10 has little of interest save for the original staircase. This has two differing types of turned baluster, two to a tread, the change of type occurring at second-floor level. The bracketed step-ends are similar to those at No. 9, as is the panelling in the stair compartment. The second-floor rooms retain features of interest, the front room having its original panelling and box-cornice, and the main rear room a chimneypiece of Adam character.(ref. 41) british-history

janeaustenslondon/shopping/

Henrietta St.: Wednesday (March 9).

Well, we went to the play again last night, and as we were out a great part of the morning too, shopping, and seeing the Indian jugglers, I am very glad to be quiet now till dressing time. We are to dine at the Tilsons', and to-morrow at Mr. Spencer's.
We had not done breakfast yesterday when Mr. J. Plumptre appeared to say that he had secured a box. Henry asked him to dine here, which I fancy he was very happy to do, and so at five o'clock we four sat down to table together while the master of the house was preparing for going out himself. The "Farmer's Wife" is a musical thing in three acts, and, as Edward was steady in not staying for anything more, we were at home before ten.
Fanny and Mr. J. P. are delighted with Miss S., and her merit in singing is, I dare say, very great; that she gave me no pleasure is no reflection upon her, nor, I hope, upon myself, being what Nature made me on that article. All that I am sensible of in Miss S. is a pleasing person and no skill in acting. We had Mathews, Liston, and Emery; of course, some amusement.
Our friends were off before half-past eight this morning, and had the prospect of a heavy cold journey before them. I think they both liked their visit very much. I am sure Fanny did. Henry sees decided attachment between her and his new acquaintance.
I have a cold, too, as well as my mother and Martha. Let it be a generous emulation between us which can get rid of it first.
I wear my gauze gown to-day, long sleeves and all. I shall see how they succeed, but as yet I have no reason to suppose long sleeves are allowable. I have lowered the bosom, especially at the corners, and plaited black satin ribbon round the top. Such will be my costume of vine-leaves and paste.
Prepare for a play the very first evening, I rather think Covent Garden, to see Young in "Richard." I have answered for your little companion's being conveyed to Keppel St. immediately. I have never yet been able to get there myself, but hope I shall soon.
What cruel weather this is! and here is Lord Portsmouth married, too, to Miss Hanson.^[1]
Henry has finished "Mansfield Park," and his approbation has not lessened. He found the last half of the last volume extremely interesting.
I suppose my mother recollects that she gave me no money for paying Brecknell and Twining, and my funds will not supply enough.
We are home in such good time that I can finish my letter to-night, which will be better than getting up to do it to-morrow, especially as, on account of my cold, which has been very heavy in my head this evening, I rather think of lying in bed later than usual. I would not but be well enough to go to Hertford St. on any account.
We met only Genl. Chowne to-day, who has not much to say for himself. I was ready to laugh at the remembrance of Frederick, and such a different Frederick as we chose to fancy him to the real Christopher!
Mrs. Tilson had long sleeves, too, and she assured me that they are worn in the evening by many. I was glad to hear this. She dines here, I believe, next Tuesday.
On Friday we are to be snug with only Mr. Barlowe and an evening of business. I am so pleased that the mead is brewed. Love to all. [Words omitted in Brabourne edition: "If Cassandra has filled my Bed with fleas, I am sure they must bite herself."] I have written to Mrs. Hill, and care for nobody.

Yours affectionately,
J. AUSTEN.

Miss Austen, Chawton.
By favour of Mr. Gray.

[1] His second wife. He died in 1853, and was succeeded by his brother, the father of the present earl.pemberley