May, Lou and Cass: Jane Austen’s Nieces in Ireland. While Jane and her parents returned to Steventon in October, Cassandra remained behind until March, 1799. The young Jane clearly looks up to the older Cassy: “I should not prosper if I strayed far from your direction.” Jane loves her—“Take care of your precious self”—and, by the end, that love reached the point of dependence: “I was ill at the time of your going from the very circumstance of your going.”. “Jane belonged to the pseudo-gentry; there was land in her family, but her parents and siblings didn’t own land, so they had to make do and mend and gloss things over.”, Pseudo-gentry kept up appearances even though their means fell short of their richer neighbors, friends, and relatives. Mr. Temple (not the horrid one of all). There is little doubt that Cassy and Jane would have been of one mind on this, as they were of one mind on most things: the novels are enough. It was an event on which Jane’s own life turned. One can imagine that in her visits Jane met many chatterboxes in the style of Miss Bates or imperious ladies like Lady C de Bourgh. I do receive books and DVDs for review. “Pinned up each others trains”, Northanger Abbey illustration in the public domain, Hugh Thompson. Cassandra bequeathed this letter to Fanny Knatchbull, née Austen-Knight, which eventually made its way into her son’s, Lord Brabourne’s, publication of Jane’s letters. On one such visit to her brother Frank in March 1845, she suffered a stroke. When Jane and Cassandra were apart, they wrote each other every three days, or five letters in a fortnight. (p. 18, Jane Austen’s Country Life.) Neither Cassandra nor Jane would have. Glad you loved the article. They found the last letters to be particularly sad, since Jane remained optimistic that she would get well and she had no idea that her lingering illness would lead to her death. In their mother's words, "if Cassandra's head had been going to be cut off, Jane would have hers cut off too". [6][7], Media related to Cassandra Austen at Wikimedia Commons, Last edited on 16 September 2020, at 12:24, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cassandra_Austen&oldid=978696116, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 16 September 2020, at 12:24. As character references go, that’s a pretty good one. I suppose. We readers know this, which makes reading those last letters even sadder. [5] After graduating from Oxford University, in 1794, one former pupil, Thomas Fowle, became engaged to Cassandra Austen. You will find LeFaye’s article for Persuasions compelling. A woman might spend a considerable part of her life wearing mourning of some sort, for distant relatives as well as close ones, so it is not surprising that there was a pressure to remain fashionable while doing so.” – Gallery of Fashion, The British Library. Introduction: In August, 1798, Rev George and Mrs. Austen and their daughters Cassandra and Jane visited Godmersham, Edward Austen-Knight’s estate near Godmersham, Kent, where he had moved with his family in November, 1797. After supper, served around midnight, the ladies and their partner sat with the lady’s family or chaperones. They were held in the Assembly Rooms, and were frequented by all the well-to-do families of the out-lying neighbourhood; many of them, like the Austens, coming from long distances, undeterred by the dangers of dark winter nights, lampless lanes, and stormy weather.” – Jane Austen: Her Homes & Her Friends, Constance Hill, Illustrations by Ellen G. Hill, John Lane, The Bodley Head Limited, first Published 1901. Austen inherited £1000 from him, which gave her a little financial independence but, like her sister, she never married.[5]. Mrs. and Miss Bates in Emma depend on the kindness of neighbors to survive, as Jane wrote in scene after scene. (2011). ), Jane adored music and she made eight volumes of her own collections, two of which she wrote by hand (copying sheets of music).
Jane Austen, famously, had a heightened awareness of the failings of others, but she placed Cassandra on a pedestal. Mr. Calland, who Penelope Hughes-Hallett identified as the Rector of Bentworth. Jane, it seems, anticipated a quiet (boring?) It gave me the stuff of my own novel: what was it exactly that Cassandra wanted to hide? I have adored Jane Austen almost all of my life. Gentle readers: Please feel free to post your comments and continue the conversation! According to Mrs Austen, Jane Austen was actually thought too young to benefit from this type of formal education at her tender age, but the young girl had insisted on accompanying her elder sister – in her mother’s precise words, "if Cassandra's head had been going to be cut off, Jane would have hers cut off too".
While Jane thought her sister the superior, they found her wanting: merely clever, compared to Jane’s brilliance; boringly sensible, when Jane was such fun. One special attachment developed between Cassandra and Tom Fowle.
Mr. Temple, mostly likely Frank, who served in the navy. The Austen family had a kind of love-hate relationship with Jane's genius and her writing career. But the fact remains that, short of acquiring a time machine, none of us will ever be able to claim we knew her properly. She allegedly looked a lot like her elder brother Edward (later adopted by the Knight family). The Harwoods were very well off according to late 18th century standards, but this was not to last.
[1] Austen continued living at Chawton, at first with her mother and a family friend, Martha Lloyd. Interestingly, many shoes made for dancing lasted for only one evening or two. Still, Jane managed from her meager yearly-pin money of around £20 to spend a sum “amounting in all to about half a guinea….”.
I thank you for your wonderful, informative article. “Austen was no more likely to dance a 75- or 100-year old dance than she was to wear fashions from a hundred years earlier.”. Frank, who was still a serving Admiral at the age of 71, was preparing to depart to take command of the Royal Navy's North American Station and was obliged to leave his stricken sister at his home (Portsdown Lodge, Widley near Portsmouth) in the care of another brother, Henry. You deserve a longer letter than this, but it is my unhappy fate seldom to treat people so well as they deserve…God bless you! Hardcover, 400 pages. The only reference Austen makes to her dress is: “My black cap was openly admired by Mrs. Lefroy, and secretly I imagine by everybody else in the room…”, At twenty-three years of age, Jane was almost on the shelf and in danger of becoming a spinster. On one such visit to her brother Frank in March 1845, she suffered a stroke. A family called the Fowles had lived here for 99 years, providing three vicars to the village, the second of whom was a great personal friend of Jane’s father. I wish I could understand her writings and her as a person more. Women’s dresses during this decade sported trains. Diana Jansen Of course, these opinions (incorrect or not) are rather harmless. Jane wrote the following letter on Christmas eve in the middle of Cassandra’s prolonged visit. So a half guinea was worth ten shillings and sixpence. Are there any published? As mentioned in this letter, only five single women danced in a room with twenty men, which meant that each female was quite busy and exhausted at the end of the night. They called each other by their Christian name, were always arm in arm when they walked, pinned up each other’s train for the dance, and were not to be divided in the set;” – Chapter 5, Northanger Abbey. https://www.brlsi.org/…/live-rediscovering-jane-austen… One of the free videos is entitled “Was this Jane Austen?” Join BRLSI in the fascinating story behind the Jane Austen portrait and waxworks and listen to Melissa as she explains the forensic process of recreating the image of Jane Austen. “Manydown is within easy reach of Basingstoke, and Jane often stayed there when the Assembly balls took place. Box 4108, McKinnon, Victoria, 3204, Australia. We are to have company to dinner on Friday: the three Digweeds and James. Good point, Denise. This link leads to an interactive map of her travels in Smithsonian Magazine. Every family, especially large families like the Austens, develop their own ecosystems: there is a pecking order, each member has its own position.
And those millions of women just like her—their lives so restricted, forced to find their way through with little money and few options—who somehow found purpose and meaning: theirs are the silent voices of history I have always longed to hear. [1] Cassandra Austen is also credited with having created two paintings of her sister. No detailed descriptions were needed for Cassandra to comprehend the letter’s full meaning. Dancers Jane described in her letter were: Rev George and Mrs Anne Lefroy (née Brydges). Her body was returned to her home village of Chawton for burial at St. Nicholas' Church alongside her mother. Your comments and suggestions are most welcome. Because if Cassandra had married her Tom Fowle, then her sister would have had to marry, too—or what would have become of her? Jane died in 1817 and Cassandra is reported to have destroyed two thirds of Jane's letters in 1843, a couple of years before her own death.
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