One of the reasons I wanted to do the JASNA tour this year [other than the doable May option] was in it following the life and times of Jane for her 250th and therefore Kent was on the itinerary. I have been only to Canterbury a million years ago as well as to Dover [for one of the worst crossings in English Channel history – only two people on the ship did not get sick: me and my not-yet husband – perhaps destiny stepped in right then and there…]. But Kent was an important place in Jane Austen’s life, and so I was most curious to visit all the known spots with Austen family connections.
We left Windsor and headed east by way of Surrey to stop in Great Bookham, home to Samuel Cooke as well as another Frances Burney spot on my side-view Burney trek – she lived here from 1793, shortly after her marriage to D’Arblay, until 1802 when they left for France [bad timing – they remained in France for over 10 years due to the Napoleonic Wars]. The home they lived in there is now called The Hermitage:
[it is lovely – they need a gardener…]
this is where Burney wrote Camilla (1796), the book where Austen’s name first appears in print as a subscriber:
Apparently Burney’s husband General D’Arblay attempted to manage the extensive gardens with military zeal – “he demolished an established asparagus bed and pruned the fruit trees with his sword.” 1
The Rev. Samuel Cooke (1741-1820) was the vicar of this first of our St Nicolas Churches for 52 years…
[notice that some have an “h” and some do not: Nicholas vs. Nicolas– no explanation for this to be found, other than this from the never-wrong AI:
“The variation in spelling (St. Nicholas vs. St. Nicolas) for churches dedicated to Saint Nicholas is due to historical and linguistic shifts. The “ch” in “Nicholas” was adopted in the 12th century in English, based on the Greek pronunciation of the “chi” letter in the name’s original Greek form. While “Nicholas” is the more common English spelling, “Nicolas” is occasionally used and reflects a more direct pronunciation of the Greek origin.”]
Samuel Cooke married a Cassandra Leigh, first cousin to Austen’s mother, also named Cassandra Leigh; he was Jane’s godfather [one way to lose your mind on any given day is to try to absorb the genealogies of the Austen, Cooke, and Leigh families…] and the families were close.
Tony Grant wrote a blog post about this several years ago, so you can visit here for more info.
And here some pictures of the Church:
For VE Day
Lucky us! we had both Liz and Claire on our trip!
Found these signs in a few toilets in our travels… you can read all about “Toilet Twinning” here – who knew??]
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We next headed to the Box Hill area and had lunch at the Burford Bridge Hotel [I had been by there on my day with Tony and Marilyn when we trekked Box Hill] – an interesting old Inn with a number of notable guests as Wikipedia tells me:
“After leaving London, John Keats took a room overlooking the gardens, and completed his epic poem “Endymion” there in 1817. (Keats is said to have been recommended the hotel by the essayist and literary critic William Hazlitt [I am not a fan of Hazlitt – he said terrible things about the Bluestockings..].) Robert Louis Stevenson was a guest in March 1878, during which time he wrote two short stories: “Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts” and “Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk.” Other prominent visitors included Queen Victoria, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth and Sheridan. It was here too that Lord Nelson spent secret hours with his love Emma Hamilton, before going to vanquish Napoleon’s fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar.”
Notable indeed! Lady Hamilton’s room is now a boring conference room but nicely labelled thus:
Rooms reflect the hotel’s history:
And Box Hill was just above us:
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After a fine lunch we headed off to Horsmonden to visit the Church of St. Margaret – this was delightful as we met some of the JAS Kent Branch members who graciously told us about the church and its ties to the Austen family. The John Austen family [John Austen was Jane’s great-grandfather but the family goes back to the first John Austen (1560-1620) – more on them tomorrow] lived here and there are various memorials in the church and churchyard – here one of the tombs: notice the “A” on the gate, signifying “Austen”:
Note: And Ron Dunning joined us here as well – you can read a post of his about Horsmonden from the vantage of a hot-air balloon!]
Liz and Ron
The stained glass windows in this church are stunning. A WWII bombing blew out all the windows on the north and east sides with little of the glass surviving – many of the now existing windows have been designed by notable artists. And a very recent discovery in an old chest at the church of an intact piece of window gives us this lovely example of what the whole window must have looked like:
The organ pipes are also a work of art:
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We then headed to our hotel in Lenham where we stayed for three days to allow for further exploring of Kent…and more of the John Austen family …
The Chilston Park Hotel was pure pleasure – the cold days and nights had set in [after unseasonably hot days in London], so walking the property was limited, but the hotel was grand, with each room named and decorated according to various themes such as Art Deco, Carousel, Montgolfier (Hot Air Ballooning!) – not sure whether the knowledge gods were at work but my room was the “Bibliotheque” – here is our door, and the tub, along with a bookcase full of books, and this “wise” fellow on the wall:
And another day well-spent! Stay tuned for tomorrow…
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1. Elizabeth Matts, et al. 1800: Great Bookham at the Time of Jane Austen, Fanny Burney and R B Sheridan. Parochial Church Council of St. Nicolas, [circa 2008], p. 26. [Published with the support of the JASNA Churches fund.]
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Jane Austen in Vermont 