Kempshott House
Miss Austen, however, forged a strong connection with Kempshott in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, being a guest of Sir Guy Carleton, first Baron Dorchester (1724-1808), who succeeded the Prince of Wales as tenant of Kempshott Park in 1796 upon his retirement, remaining there until 1803.
Lord Dorchester
The balls she attended at Kempshott House were important influences on her writing. Miss Austen was even engaged briefly at one point to Harris Bigg-Wither, son of one of Kempshott's neighbouring landowners. Also acquainted with Lord Dorchester, inter alia, were the Terry family of nearby Dummer House, as was a 'tall young man named Golding', so wrote Stephen Terry, with connections to The Goldings, a private residence near Basingstoke, a possibility.
We found
Kempshott House to be a stone classical structure such as Miss Austen describes as "a modern residence." It has a large bowed centre, three windows wide, supported by a colonnade of pillars. Lord Dorchester took over Kempshott House, in the year 1796, from George, Prince of Wales, who had used it as a hunting residence. At the time of the French Revolution, a large number of émigrés of high rank were entertained at Kempshott.
Kempshot House, Adam Room (2)
(Kempshott Park Saloon - Impression)
St Louis Art Museum, Missouri, USA, 1929
On December 28, 1798, Jane wrote to Cassandra:
“Mrs. Lefroy has just sent me word that Lady Dorchester means to invite me to her Ball on the 8th of January, which tho’ an humble blessing compared with what the last page records, I do not consider as any Calamity.”
Then, the day after the ball she reports:
“There was the same kind of supper as last year, and the same want of chairs. There were more dancers than the room could conveniently hold, which is enough to constitute a good ball at any time.”
But how did she know what the supper was like in 1797 unless she had attended that ball also, perhaps along with Cassandra? In a letter of November 1, 1800, she describes a ball held on Thursday, October 30: “It was a pleasant Ball, & still more good than pleasant, for there were nearly 60 people, and sometimes we had 17 couple. The Portsmouths, Dorchesters, Boltons, Portals & Clerks were there, and all the meaner and more usual &c. &c.’s – There was a scarcity of Men in general, & a still greater scarcity of any that were good for much.”
jasna.org/persuasions
Kempshott-House
“Mrs. Lefroy has just sent me word that Lady Dorchester means to invite me to her Ball on the 8th of January, which tho’ an humble blessing compared with what the last page records, I do not consider as any Calamity.”
Then, the day after the ball she reports:
“There was the same kind of supper as last year, and the same want of chairs. There were more dancers than the room could conveniently hold, which is enough to constitute a good ball at any time.”
But how did she know what the supper was like in 1797 unless she had attended that ball also, perhaps along with Cassandra? In a letter of November 1, 1800, she describes a ball held on Thursday, October 30: “It was a pleasant Ball, & still more good than pleasant, for there were nearly 60 people, and sometimes we had 17 couple. The Portsmouths, Dorchesters, Boltons, Portals & Clerks were there, and all the meaner and more usual &c. &c.’s – There was a scarcity of Men in general, & a still greater scarcity of any that were good for much.”
jasna.org/persuasions
Kempshott-House
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