Jane Austen 250: Happy Birthday Jane!

 

Willoughby asks Elinor to stay.

Today is Jane Austen's 250th birthday! Pop over to my Jane Austen blog so see my highlights of her bicentenary year. 

Illustration by Charles Brock for Sense and Sensibility. Willoughby asks Elinor to stay. 

8 College Street, Winchester.

No 8, College Street, Winchester. 

 A few weeks ago, I was very privileged to see inside No 8, College Street, Winchester, the house where Jane Austen spent her last few weeks. 

Her family hoped that a town doctor, Dr Lydford, might be able to effect a cure for her illness (the cause of which is still not known for certain). 

Jane wrote to her nephew James Edward Austen, 'Our lodgings are very comfortable. We have a neat little drawing room with a bow window overlooking Dr Gabell’s Garden'. 

The bow-window at 8 College Street. 

The left image is the current view through the bow window on the first floor; on the right is the view of the same room from the far end. 

Below you can see how the room looks at the far end; there's a fireplace at both ends of the room.

Jane was still writing almost until the end; her last composition was a comic verse on Winchester horse races. 

She died on 18 July 1817. 

I was very moved to finally see inside the house; I have often seen it from the outside over the years. Of course, I was more sad than excited. How young Jane was! She was still only 41 years old. 

After Jane's death, her sister Cassandra wrote mournfully to their niece Fanny Knight: 'I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can have been 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, and it is as if I had lost a part of myself'.

Winchester College has renovated the interior, and carefully matched the paint on the walls to traces found during the restoration. The house is currently open to visitors until the end of August (although you may have to wait for a cancellation). 

My Top Five Picks

 

Gallop over to the BOOKDNA website where you'll find the Top Five books I recommend for understanding the history of Jane Austen's England!

Image from the author's collection - Fashions of 1797. 

Muslins and Mule-Spinning

Full dress for December 1798.

My latest feature for Jane Austen's Regency World (January issue) - on mule-spinning - marks the beginning of my new series on the growing mechanization of Britain's industries during Austen's era. 

The Industrial Revolution affected not just the workers who were the 'shock troops' of the Revolution, but also the way that Jane and her family - and the characters in her novels - lived.  I'm really enjoying writing this series, and I hope that you enjoy it, too! 

Illustrations 

Above:

‘Full dress for December 1798’. The Lady’s Monthly Museum, Vol.1, Vernor & Hood, London, December 1798. Author’s collection. 

Right:

‘Mule’ for spinning cotton. Child workers ‘pieced’ together broken threads, and cleaned cotton waste from under the machine. Charles Knight, Knight’s Pictorial Gallery of Arts, Vol. 1, London Printing and Publishing Co., c.1858. Author’s collection.

NFReads Interview

Do pop over to the NFReads website where you can read an interview with me (and lots of other authors!).

Obviously I would have loved to have been dressed like this for the interview - 'Carriage Dress', Ackermann's Repository, March 1816. 

Blaise Castle

Blaise Castle House Museum. 

Take a ride in John Thorpe's carriage to Blaise Castle in my latest post on my Jane Austen blog!

Sold out - but don't panic!

A High Wind in the Park! 1819. 

I had some very good news this morning - A Visitor's Guide to Jane Austen's England has sold out! However, Pen and Sword have scheduled a re-release for the end of November, and you can pre-order here (especially as it would make a lovely Christmas present for a Jane Austen fan!) Alternatively, there are still a few print copies left on Amazon UK and Amazon US, and of course you can still buy my book on Kindle while it's unavailable in print form.

William Cowper's House

Hares sculpture, Cowper Museum garden.

Happy New Year to all my readers! I hope you had a good Christmas.

If  you pop over to my Jane Austen blog, you can read about my visit to the Cowper and Newton Museum, Olney.

The museum has an exhibition devoted to the local lace-making industry; little girls worked very long hours making lace in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 

Lace on display at the Cowper and Newton museum.

A Visit to Rousham Park

Temple of Echo, Rousham Park.

My latest post on my Jane Austen blog is my recent visit to Rousham Park, the birthplace of landscape gardening in the eighteenth century.

A Regency Dinner Party

Lady's Monthly Museum.

My latest post on my Jane Austen blog is on planning a special dinner party!

Fun And Games!

Gallop post-haste to my Jane Austen blog to find out more about a Regency kissing game!

Nelson and Emma

My latest feature for Jane Austen's Regency World looks at Emma Hamilton's affair with Lord Nelson. You can also find out more about Cheshire-born Emma Hamilton's early career here on my Jane Austen blog.

Image: Lord Nelson, Heroes of the British Navy, Frederick Warne & Co., c. 1900. Nigel Wilkes Collection.

Horsey Fun!

Gallop over to my Jane Austen blog for my latest post on horsemanship - an essential skill in Regency England.

Church-going in Austen's Day

Chawton Church, Hampshire.

Pop over to my Jane Austen blog for my latest post, on Sundays in Regency-era Britain.

Love and Marriage

Elinor makes Edward Ferrars the happiest of men.

If you are a modest young lady hoping that your own Mr Darcy or Mr Knightley will turn up one day, gallop over to my Jane Austen blog for advice on that all-important marriage proposal!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my readers! If you need a leisurely start to the day after last night's celebrations, why not stroll over to my Jane Austen blog to read my latest post - on morning visits?

Illustration: Mr Elton leaves an intriguing paper with Emma and Harriet in Jane Austen's Emma. C.E.Brock illustration courtesy of the wonderful Molland’s website.

Birthday Girl!

It's Jane Austen's birthday today, so do check out my latest post on my Jane Austen blog!

Austenprose Review of A Visitor's Guide To Jane Austen's England!

A wonderful review of my new book A Visitor's Guide To Jane Austen's England is now live on the Austenprose website. Laurel Ann's site is a treasure trove of info about all things Austen-related, so have fun exploring it!

Eloped!

Saddle up and gallop over to the British Newspaper Archive blog to read my guest post on a true-life thrilling 19th century elopement which could have come straight out of one of Jane Austen's novels!
Illustration by Hugh Thomson, Coaching Days and Coaching Ways, (Macmillan & Co. Ltd, 1910).

Fairytale Gardens

Lady's Monthly Museum, April 1805.

Stroll over to my Jane Austen blog to find out more about the pleasure grounds of Vauxhall Gardens!