The beautiful Blush Noisette rose that frames the doorway is looking stunning.

Jane Austen's House

The beautiful Blush Noisette rose that frames the doorway has bloomed and is looking (and smelling) stunning!

(Photos taken during last week’s heatwave )

Jane Austen writing to her sister Cassandra from this house in May 1811.

 ‘Some of the Flower seeds are coming up very well - but your Mignionette makes a wretched appearance....Our young Piony at the foot of the Fir tree has just blown & looks very handsome; & the whole of the Shrubbery Border will soon be very gay with Pinks & Sweet Williams, in addition to the Columbines already in bloom. JaneAustensHouseMuseum

Jane Austen's Garden in Autumn

Autumn seems to be well and truly upon us now, with bright colours showing through the trees, cool nights and chilly mornings, heavy dews with bright sunny days.

Amazingly the Show Border is still in “wow” mode with a lovely show of colour from the summer annuals. The Tigridia’s - Ferraria Tigridia - (summer flowering bulbs) showed the last 3 petaled bright red flower two weeks ago. All have now been dug up last week by Sheryl, who is one of my 3 new garden volunteers.  Sheryl is a Botanical Artist and has brought pictures for me to see some of her very lovely plant paintings.

September/October and occasionally August are the months to see “Orb” spiders generally sitting in the centre of their beautiful webs which when covered with dew in the early mornings, glisten and twinkle as they move in the sunlight.

Read all: jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk/Jane-Austens-Garden-in-Autumn

Summer in Chawton Cottage

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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

England's privately owned pleasure gardens

In the eighteenth century, England's privately owned pleasure gardens hosted royalty, nobility and famous people of the day who promenaded through exquisite, classical vistas and artfully contrived ruins in a fairyland of tinkling fountains and glittering lights. They showcased the finest musicians and artists of the day, hosting Mozart's English debut, and exhibited fine art in a public setting for the first time. At a time when the city streets were unlit and impassable (as they perceived them) except by sedan chair, pleasure gardens offered well-to-do ladies a thrilling opportunity to meet people from beyond their proscribed circle of friends. The gardens were also the first truly egalitarian venue, where anyone was granted admission for the price of a ticket, regardless of class. In an age almost as celebrity-orientated as our own, with nobles replacing TV stars, the gardens were the place to see and be seen. They began to appear as England fell in love with fun again at the Restoration, and reached their height in the 1740s and 50s. In the halcyon days of the mid to late 18th century, the gardens were the backdrop to an endless parade of concerts, balls, public breakfasts, masquerades and firework displays.

For those who worked, holidays really were only single days, and before the railways made travel to the coast or countryside viable, a day at a pleasure garden on the outskirts of the city was the perfect way to unwind. By the Victorian era most pleasure gardens had lost their Arcadian chic. Offering family entertainments, balloon ascents, animal exhibits and ice-cream, they were the forerunners of the seaside or amusement park.

Tragically, little is left of such an important part of our history. Of the great London gardens, Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens was entirely lost to Victorian property development until the blitz cleared a portion of the site, which was redefined as a park after the second world war. Now restored to the original name of Spring Gardens, it remains a public park off Kennington Lane in Lambeth, with part of the site on Tyers Street dedicated to Vauxhall City Farm and the Riding Therapy Centre. Ranelagh also all but disappeared, save for a small area where the Chelsea Flower Show is now held (Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea). The fate of the provincial gardens was generally more severe. Victims of civic and industrial expansion, almost all were gone by 1860, leaving only a district or street name to mark their passing.

On the photo: An entertainment in Vauxhall Gardens in c.1779 by Thomas Rowlandson. The two women in the centre are Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and her sister Lady Duncannon. The man seated at the table on the left is Samuel Johnson, with James Boswell to his left and Oliver Goldsmith to his right. To the right the actress and author Mary Darby Robinson stands next to the Prince of Wales, later George IV
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Sydney Gardens Vauxhall in Bath was possibly the greatest pleasure garden outside London. It boasted a labyrinth, where Jane Austen walked every day when she lived in Bath, as well as a picturesque folly of a ruined castle. Once Brunel's railway bisected the site, popularity began to wane, and by the end of the 19th century it was little more than a public park with concerts. Suffering further decline in the 20th century, there is little left apart from a bowling green and tennis courts to entertain visitors (Pulteney Road). However the space is set to return to its former glory with the current redevelopment of the Holburne Museum (bath.ac.uk/holburne) on Great Pulteney Street, once the Sydney Hotel and gateway to the gardens, and further plans to restore Sydney Gardens (Sydney Place).
• Sarah Jane Downing is the author of The English Pleasure Garden 1660-1860, published by Shire Publications, £5.99 pleasure-sydney-gardens-vauxhall-bath

On the photo: Sketch of the Fancy Fair at Sydney Gardens, Bath for the Relief of Distressed Seamen. Painted around 1836 by an unknown artist
In her letter to Cassandra dated 19^th June 1799 , written while Jane Austen was staying in Bath with her brother Edward and his family in Queen’s Square, she recorded her impressions of one such event:
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Last night we were in Sidney Gardens (sic) again as there was a repetition of the Gala which went off so ill on the 4^th-  We did not go till nine and then were in very good time for the Fire-Works which were  really beautiful and surpassing my expectations- the illuminations too were very pretty.

She appears to have disliked the music played there, for she made this caustic comment in her letter to Cassandra of the 2nd June 1799, when writing of the planned visit to the original gala:

There is to be a grand gala on Tuesday evening in Sydney Gardens-A concert with Illuminations and Fireworks; to the latter Elizabeth and I look forward with pleasure, and even the concert will have more than its usual charm with me, as the Gardens are large enough for me to get pretty well beyond the reach of its sound.

wiki/Vauxhall_Gardens

Chawton cottage's garden

Garden

Jane Austen loved a garden. She took a keen interest in flower gardening and kitchen gardening alike.
The Austens grew their own food whenever they could and had flower gardens wherever they lived, at their
parsonage at Steventon in Hampshire, their town gardens at Bath and Southampton, and when
they returned to Hampshire, at their cottage garden at Chawton. In Jane’s letters to her sister Cassandra,
we see her planning the details of these family gardens, discussing the planting of fruit, flowers, and trees
with enthusiasm. In the course of her life, she also had the opportunity to visit many of the grander
gardens of England: her brother’s two estates at Chawton and Godmersham, the manor houses
of friends and family, and probably even the great estate at Chatsworth, assumed by many to be the inspiration for Pemberley…

So begins the book
“In the Garden with Jane Austen,” by Kim Wilson,
author of Tea with Jane Austen,
published by Jones Books [2008]
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“Our Garden is putting in order, by a Man who bears a remarkably good character, has a very fine complexion & asks something less than the first. The shrubs which border the gravel walk he says are only sweetbriar & roses, & the latter of an indifferent sort;–we mean to get a few of a better kind therefore, & at my own particular desire he procures us some Syringas. I could not do without a Syringa, for the sake of Cowper’s Line.–We talk also of a Laburnam.–The Border under the Terrace Wall, is clearing away to receive Currants & Gooseberry Bushes, & a spot is found very proper for raspberries.” – Letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen, February 8, 1807
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