Started the morning with Joy spotting yet another famous person – in the lobby of the hotel – a Gerald-Ford-Lookalike – Joy is very good at finding these people! [recall Churchill last night at The Wellington!]
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We are off and running this morning to see as much as possible before the play tonight…
We hit Hatchard’s on Piccadilly first thing – one of those must-see places whenever in London [I go again when I came back in July] – founded in 1797, claims to be the oldest in the UK, it offers five floors of books, mostly new but also a brilliant collection of used and rare…one could be here all day, or more – so we do a rather fast scurry to all the floors, find this book, newly out that we both have to have…
Always check the Churchill section…how much can you possibly say about one man??
– and after a few purchases we head next door to the other must-see London shop Fortnum & Mason: their windows alone drawing you in…
Did not do Afternoon Tea this time – but here it all is awaiting your arrival….
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Passing Carnaby Street on our way to Liberty London on Great Marlborough St., with its array of fabrics for all manner of fashion and household goods. I had not been here before and what a treat! There was an exhibit on the history of the store and its variety of fabrics – could not get enough of this!
Then off to do the Royals – Kensington Palace – have been a number of times before but with different exhibits, this time going through most of the place to see its history – then a fine café lunch and then just wandered back to the hotel to pack and prepare for the play – A few photos from the Palace:
Then the play! No photos allowed during the performance, so only these from the outside [with Nelson in the background]:
and the opening screen:
Clueless did not disappoint – completely faithful to the original film AND Emma, there were catchy tunes, with great actors / singers / dancers; enough plaid to satisfy any tartan-obsessive; and enough energy in the playhouse to keep us all tapping and clapping all the way home. It was pure delight! [It is closing soon – get your tickets if you can…]
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So this short stop in London ended our tour – my hopes to see some of those places on my to-do list [the Sherlock Holmes Pub. and the National Portrait Gallery, closed for renovation the last time I was there] – I was not too disappointed as I was coming back at the end of June – and happy to report I did see Richard III in his new digs at the NPG [Room 1, Floor 3] as well as my favorite pub, under new management and with a new sign, but all the same inside with the Holmes memorabilia upstairs – the pub sign has changed a number of times through the years – here is the new one:
[Mr. Holmes is a topic for another day – a full post just on these changing signs is way past due…]
[this sort of creeped me out – my mother’s name was Elsie…]
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And of course a Richard III – because even Jane thought he was an innocent man…
I was off very early for a 10:30 am flight – the hotel packed me a lovely breakfast; the taxi driver and I had the best conversation about Life and Current Politics I’ve had all year [lots to talk about!]; Heathrow was smooth sailing – and I was home via Charlotte NC and to Savannah in what seemed like a jiffy..
Such a nearly three-week journey! – very well-spent – with a hearty Thank You to JASNA and Pathfinders [and Marian our leader and driver Paul], to Liz Cooper for all her planning and just being there for all of us. And to everyone in Britain who welcomed us with such open arms despite our political nonsense! All the tour participants were a joy to spend some quality-Jane-time with – Thank You all for making this trip one of a lifetime – all in celebration of Jane’s 250th – seeing all the spots from her birth to her death, and all the glorious writing in-between. I am more devoted than ever – we are all nuts, of course, but justifiably so!
[You can visit the JASNA site for information on this years two tours – you should start planning for next year – JASNA will be announcing the 2026 tour early in the new year…just do it!]
c2025JaneAusteninVermont
Tea Towel – Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral – at the Jane Austen wall memorial
Hotel Indigo [from their website – I forgot to take a picture!]
Our last group breakfast at our Hotel Indigo in Bath – hugs and goodbyes and “safe travels” to all who boarded the bus to Heathrow – and those of us doing the London extension boarded ours – we were a small group, and each of us with our own London agenda. We would be gathering only for breakfast each day and then on our own until the next evening’s play Clueless [more on that tomorrow…]
Our London hotel in Bloomsbury [love staying in Bloomsbury!] was a tad bizarre with the ugliest couch I have ever encountered – but we managed for the two nights as were never there…
[Not sure what that shadow is – appears to be a Knight in Shining Armor – but he too was frightened away by the couch…]
But first, a photo of this wallpaper – I think it was in the hotel in Bath – but this is a favorite pattern of mine so have to share:
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As Joy and I had a few of the same agenda high spots, off we went, walking everywhere, just so overJOYed to be in London again…
First, the John Soane Museum, comprising three houses in Lincoln’s Inn Fields – Soane’s architectural office, his home and library, and later home to his extraordinary collections. Since his death in 1857, everything has remained the same – all the works of art, sculptures, and furniture – all as he had it arranged (similar again to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston) and why there is minimal signage and no labels.
Exterior of the Soane Museum [from their website]
Soane is considered one of Britain’s greatest and most innovative architects – though his design for Whitehall, here as a model, was never executed:
As you first enter the dining room and library, you come face to face with his portrait by Thomas Lawrence.
The entire museum is a maze of rooms filled from top to bottom with Soane’s collections – one couldn’t take it all in in with daily visits for months – a few hours just leaves one quite overwhelmed [not to mention humbled…]
Let’s take a quick tour with a few of the photos I took [not enough!]
The Picture Room:
– Venetian scenes by Canaletto [alas! no photos…idiot]
– hidden behind large wooden doors that open up to another group of paintings – only about 10 people are allowed in for the timed viewings – we were SO lucky to arrive just in time – behind the panels we found Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress – here just a few (but you can see the whole series here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rake%27s_Progress
Austen as we know knew her Hogarth – she references him in a letter to Cassandra [8 Sept 1796]:
she has decided to not go to London with Frank for fear her friends will not be there –
“…for if the Pearsons were not at home, I should inevitably fall a Sacrifice to the arts of some fat Woman who would make me drunk with Small Beer.”
She is referencing here in her witty way the first plate of Hogarth’s The Harlot’s Progress – Austen understands the reality of a young woman alone in London:
In the basement you find the Monks Parlour: Soane here making fun of the Gothic style – the “monk” was Padre Giovanni, Soane’s imaginary alter ego – you could be invited here to tea – between this and the nearby sarcophagus of King Seti I (1303-1290 BC), considered one of the most important of all surviving Egyptian antiquities, I might have rethought a nighttime visit to Mr. Soane’s basement parlour…
[from the Soane fb page]
[from the Soane Museum website]
The Kitchen:
I can never resist an old kitchen – and here we have a patent range dating from 1812, as well as the china pantry with my favorite blue and white…
We find Shakespeare with his own hallowed place in the stairwell:
And the Drawing Rooms, painted in “Turner’s patent yellow,” we find family portraits and fine furniture:
[South Drawing Room – from the Soane Museum website]
And can we ever have a day without finding a George IV on the wall??
One of the dome ceilings:
And a secret photo of Joy and me! [I didn’t see this until I got home!]
The Apollo Belvedere [a cast from the one in Rome]: a very odd angle, not sure what I was thinking…
And the famous Dome Ceiling:
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Lovely time here – wish we could have spent more, but I was quite dizzy as we emerged into the light of day…and now time to just do a little more wandering to must-see places:
I passed LSE where I had gone to classes on my semester abroad in 1968:
Passing the Royal Courts of Justice, we saw much press activity about a famous court case about to be decided – I knew nothing about any of it and still don’t and cannot find anything in the news!
Of course a trip to London is never complete without a visit to Twinings [Jane would approve as well]
I have never understood why in a country founded and sustained by Tea, they do not serve iced tea – yet, here at Twinings at the sample tea bar in the back of the store, one of the “flavours of the day” was an iced tea – here is the recipe: Enjoy, wherever you are…
Dinner at The Wellington [appropriate since I started this trip engrossed in the guy – see first posts of this trip] was to finish our day – delicious beef pie – with Joy spotting a Winston Churchill behind her!
Walking back to hotel we took in the Royal Drury Lane Theatre,
And The Marquess of Anglesey – I feel connected to the good Marquess because I use an image of him in his curricle in my talks on Regency carriages and travel in Jane Austen’s time:
Passing by this artful extravaganza: quite the magical show – we could not stop smiling!:
Found the home of Randolph Caldecott, complete Hero in the history of children’s literature – I love him:
Caldecott’s John Gilpin
And finally the London Review of Books Bookshop, a favorite spot, but this evening closed because of an author event in progress…
So ‘til tomorrow – last day! Aren’t you exhausted??
I am ashamed to say I have never been to Apsley House, home of the Duke of Wellington, so that was my goal this day – Ron had never been either, so we met there [right at the Hyde Park Gate, address is One London as you exit from Hyde Park] – and if you had a doubt as to whose home this was [and is], the number of portraits, sculptures, and paraphernalia of the Duke would certainly give you a hint… not to mention the statue of said Duke in the park across the street…
And the Wellington Arch: it is crowned by the largest bronze sculpture in Europe: the Angel of Peace descending on the Chariot of War. You can read about its history [and controversy] here.
One of the many portraits of the Duke
Your basic dining room…
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I loved it here – and art collection beyond compare – I could have spent many more hours. But for a man who by all accounts liked the simple life of being on a campaign, the extent of elaborate decorative arts and sumptuous décor seems to belie that – the color RED everywhere, and YELLOW…
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One of two great surprises at Apsley is the extensive Spanish art collection in the Waterloo Gallery, “one of the great palatial interiors of Britain” [the Apsley House Guidebook by English Heritage] – a gift of King Ferdinand of Spain in 1816, the 165 paintings were found in an abandoned baggage carriage of Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte, then King of Spain. I give one fine example: “The Gambler,” by “a follower of Caravaggio”:
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The other grand surprise was to find on entering the house a large nude statue of all people Napoleon! Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker by Canova. It had been commissioned by Napoleon but had been covered up at the Louvre – after Waterloo Britain bought it for 66,000 francs and the Prince Regent [George IV] gifted it to Wellington. The entry stairwell was the only possible location and the floor had to be reinforced to support the great weight. Wellington admired Napoleon and there are several paintings of him in the art collection here. You can see the stairwell and the size in my more modest photo (!) here – this better picture of the whole statue is from the guidebook [it actually looks much larger than this image conveys – I did burst out laughing when I saw it was Napoleon…]
A friend of mine went several years ago to Apsley House for one of their occasional Regency balls – I can only imagine the swoosh of the dresses and music all around … you can see such a one in this youtube: https://www.facebook.com/ApsleyHouse/videos/2444115022311548
Alas! I had to content myself with an audio guide and a vivid imagination…
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Next up was Henry Austen! Ron and I were off to Sloane Square, where I served as a grateful listener for one of Ron’s walking tours of Austen sites. I had done this part of Henry Austen’s life before but Ron’s history of it all added much to my knowledge, not to mention another glorious weather day… all followed by lunch in a crowded outside eatery right in the middle of the weekend Sloane Square market – made one feel like a real Londoner!
Henry’s house in Hans Place…
What Henry’s house would have looked like then…
And the requisite Blue Plaque so we know it’s true…
adding this sketch from Constance Hill’s book JA: Her Homes and Her Friends (1902):
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Another great day with Ron…we bid adieu ’til a next visit [we have already lined up an itinerary…] – and I had a fine dinner later at my hotel [that is water not vodka!]:
Next up: the beginning of the JASNA Tour starting in Windsor!
This day I had the pleasure of spending time with Ron Dunning – we have in the past visited estates and famous houses, and this time the plan was to go to Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill
– alas! it was CLOSED [who closes a tourist site on a Friday??!] – but a few outside photos give you a sense of its grandeur – inside for another trip I am sorry to say – but you can visit it virtually here:
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But Marble Hill was a lovely surprise – home to Henrietta Howard, mistress of George II [for which George’s wife Caroline was most grateful] – apparently George spoke no English and Henrietta was deaf, so a perfect relationship that lasted until he took on another mistress [you can read the ever-interesting George’s mistress stories here.
Howard was unhappily married, separated, but a well-loved and respected woman of education, wit, and grace. She also had a “home of her own” – she designed and lived in Marble Hill beginning in the 1720s, one of the many villas built along the Thames – it remains a rare example of a house built for and by a woman in Georgian England, thankfully saved by an Act of Parliament in 1902. Unlike many such estates, it feels like a very real and livable home, not a museum – you can read more about Henrietta and Marble Hill here.
Love this dining room wallpaper:
View from the Thames:
And now a view of the modern Thames, not likely what Henrietta saw!:
We did go to nearby Orleans House, now really just the Gallery standing – I only took a picture of the exquisite ceiling, but here is also an exterior shot courtesy of Wikipedia:
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And to finish off the day, we took in the country home Sandycombe Lodge of J. M. W. Turner, where there was an inspiring watercolor exhibit of “Turner’s Kingdom: Beauty, Birds, and Beasts,” and very unlike the large and dramatic landscapes we associate with him. Celebrating Turner’s 250th [just like Jane!], the house, designed by Turner, is a small retreat that Turner lived in with his father.
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And this just another window of interest – and wisteria EVERYWHERE! [just like in SC…]
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And another day “well-spent” – Thank you Ron for shepherding me around the sites of Twickenham!
I had planned this day with my friend Tony Grant of “London Calling” fame – we met at Waterloo Station under the famous clock [where I promptly lost my sunglasses – bought a ridiculous looking magenta pair at Boots and wore them for the rest of the tour..]
Our itinerary was to take the train to Tony’s house [Tony graciously met me at Waterloo: did you know that anyone over 60 in the UK gets to ride all transportation for FREE?? – well, if you are UK citizen that is], where Marilyn offered me tea and goodies and then the three of us were off driving to Frances Burney sites: this was our plan:
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We drove to Streatham to see the area of the Hester Thrale’s [later Piozzi] home at Streatham Park where many literary greats were entertained – most especially Dr. Johnson and Frances Burney – the house sadly demolished in 1863 for “suburban development.”
Then onto the village of Chessington where we saw the spot where Chessington Hall existed, the country house of Samuel Crisp, the close friend of Frances Burney – she largely wrote Cecilia here while visiting. [the house was demolished in 1965 for a housing development…a sad pattern here, don’t you think?]
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A number of years ago Tony and I did a trek to Box Hill – but a rainy / foggy day allowed for NO VIEWS [see post here and the foggy pictures at the end] – so this time we made up for that by walking the trails and seeing exactly where Emma and crew had their debacle of a picnic – you could almost hear “Badly done!” echoing in the breeze…
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and some interesting after-Jane history at Box Hill:
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Had lunch at The Running Horses Inn & Pub – well, they were past serving lunch, but a funeral lunch had just finished and the grieving family invited us to eat whatever we wanted from what was left of their father’s ‘celebration of life’ luncheon – a very kind and generous offer –
I did love their wallpaper in the ladies’ room:
So drinks and free food at the pub and then we were off to Mickleham and the house [Juniper Hall– now a part of the National Trust] where Germaine de Staël and the French émigrés lived – this is where Burney was first introduced to Alexandre D’Arblay – love at first sight apparently! You cannot go inside as it now is a field center for educational camps, but we did do a quick walk-through of the entrance area and the room where Burney likely met D’Arblay [sans vacuum]…
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And then off to the Norman church in Mickleham where Burney and D’Arblay were married on July 28, 1793, the St. Michael and All Angels Church:
[We did not do Great Bookham today as it was to be part of the JASNA tour, so stay tuned for that with its Burney connection…]
Tony & Marilyn in front of the St. Mary the Virgin Church in Chessington – the church was not open – we would like to have seen the Burne-Jones designed window of “Faith, Hope, and Charity” and the Samuel Crisp Memorial penned by Frances Burney [here thanks to wikipedia]:
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It was all in all a day well-spent! With hearty thanks to Tony and Marilyn for driving me all over the suburbs and countryside…!
So, finally, after years of doing various Jane Austen treks on my own, I was finally able to take the JASNA tour this May. And what a delight! Great itinerary, great accommodations, food, and brilliant company! Celebrating Austen’s 250th, we toured the various locales of her life and works, and always with the feeling of Jane herself looking over one’s shoulder, wondering what all the fuss was about…
Highlights are too hard to list in order of preference – each day a new adventure – and rather like being asked which is your favorite Austen novel, the answer always being “the one I have just finished” – the best of the tour was each new day.
I will say that being able to be the first to go into the 8 College Street address in Winchester where Austen passed away on July 18th 1817 was the most emotional – more on that soon – but it was a surprise to all of us that the College had worked so hard on getting it ready before expectations, and we were ushered in…
I shall try to sum up each day with a few pictures – I took 1227 in total [yikes!] and shall not burden you with all that [I have a penchant for windows and doors – and goodness knows where they are actually located…] – so here goes, as I start the course of my adventure, arriving in London several days early to visit sites with friends…
This is how you know you are in England:
DAY 1: Arrival, Lack of Sleep, Kensington walks
Arrived at my Kensington hotel but unable to check in until 3:00pm so wandered around on my own. I had lived in this Cromwell Road area as a student in 1968 [and where I met my husband] – so like to stay in this area when in London – changed a good deal, but the V&A and Prince Albert Hall are a short walk away and did this until lack of sleep set in:
Cartier sold out, so I skipped through the Fashion Exhibit: was lucky to see this as it was closed to visitors just a few days later – a few favorites:
Jane Austen and London is a subject that should have its own shelf(ves). This is one of those down the rabbit hole in collecting that will either find you on a completely different path of book buying or become for you “the road not taken.” There will be many such roads if you embark on the adventure of collecting Jane Austen – as you all likely know, it is an endless morass…
Long before I began to collect Jane Austen, I started a collection of books on London – I love London for many reasons – my parents were born in England so I became an anglophile from an early age; I studied in London for a college semester (political science – don’t ask!); and during that semester met my husband, so it serves as a Romantic haven for me. I started collecting any books I could find on London – a heady task (almost as impossible as Jane Austen) – then narrowed it to children’s books about or set in London (many more than you would think) – then when Austen hit my radar I began to focus just on Regency-era London (a bit more manageable but larger than my pocket book or shelf space nonetheless). So I now have rather a mish-mash of various titles, some very collectible and some just commonplace treatises great for reference and beautiful pictures. When I began doing talks on Jane Austen and London, I found a real use for the books I had as well as an excuse to acquire more….and so you see my mighty fall into the Rabbit Hole of collecting….
Today I will just share three titles of the many, for no particular reason other than to show the diversity of what’s out there – I append at the end the very select bibliography handout for the talk I give, though is now a bit outdated and does not contain all the books I have – if you have any favorite books on London, please share the titles in the comments.
1. Regency London, by Stella Margetson. New York: Praeger, 1971 [London: Cassell, 1971].
Margetson wrote a few novels but also a number of books of English social history especially of the late 18th and the 19th-century. This book on Regency London is a short introductory text that covers the basics, with black and white contemporary illustrations throughout:
Carlton House
The Mercantile City
Westminster and Government
The Regent and the Architect
High Society
Entertainment
The Artists and the Writers
The Populace
Some Visitors to London [Jane gets a few pages on her stays in London]
An Expanding City
FYI: Cassell / Praeger did a series of five books on London:
Roman London, by Ralph Merrifield
Medieval London, by Timothy Baker
Elizabethan London, by Martin Holmes
Regency London, by Stella Margetson
Victorian London, by Priscilla Metcalf
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2. The A to Z of Regency London, Introduction by Paul Laxton; index compiled by Joseph Wisdom. Lympne Castle, Kent: Harry Margary, in association with Guildhall Library, London, 1985.
This historical atlas is based on Richard Horwood’s survey of London in 1792-9 and updated by William Faden in 1813 – it shows the streets, lanes, courts, yards, and alleys, but also every individual building with its street number – the 40 sheets of the original Horwood have been photographically reduced, and the index for this edition expands the original by threefold.
The Horwood map is available online in various formats [a terrific one is here: https://www.romanticlondon.org/explore-horwoods-plan/#16/51.5112/-0.0747], but this is a treasure to have close at hand. One can easily trace Austen’s meanderings described in her letters, and follow the many characters in Sense and Sensibility – where they live, visit, and shop – her one novel where London is central to the plot (though it is also where the dilemma of Harriet gets sorted!)
For those of you who love maps, there are others to choose from in this series: The A to Z of Elizabethan London, Restoration London, Georgian London, Victorian London, and Edwardian London (there is also one for Georgian Dublin)
Horwood Map, p 13: Covent Garden
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3. One Day in Regency England, by Alastair Scott. Brighton: Robert Tyndall, 1974.
This is a children’s book, and about all of England not just London – but it is a delightful introduction to the period and filled with color and black and white contemporary illustrations; the cover is designed by Gordon King.
The book presents the day of July 20, 1813 in the lives of several characters, starting in the home of Charles Henry Longhurst – we meet him and his family and their friends and his servants, the children in school, life in the country vs. the day in the City – all presented as what goes on in these individual lives in the Morning, Afternoon and Evening. It is skillfully and entertainingly done and in 48 pages takes us in to traveling carriages, cookery in the kitchen, a dinner party and then off to Vauxhall Gardens, all the while getting a glimpse of those doing all the work behind the scenes! It is quite an exhausting day!
As you can see in the bottom paragraph in the above page image, Scott writes that Longhurst’s daughter Amelia is quite taken with Jane Austen and reading Pride and Prejudice – when suddenly her attention is drawn to the arrival of a small chimney-sweep – and thus we are privy to that bit of history, of poor, young, soot-covered boys and the realities and dangers of that job.
[This Day Book Series also includes a number of other “One Day” adventures in a variety of time periods in England and elsewhere: Shakespeare’s England, Roman Britain, Victorian, Medieval, WWI, WWII, etc.]
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As noted, this bibliography is very select but gives you an idea of the variety of works on London and specifically London during Jane Austen’s time – again, it is a bit outdated….
‘Jane Austen’s London in Fact and Fiction’: Select Bibliography
The A – Z of Regency London; introduction by Paul Laxton. London: Harry Margary / Guildhall Library, 1985.
Ackermann, R. The Microcosm of London, or London in Miniature. Rpt. ed. London: Methuen, 1904.
Ackroyd, Peter. London: The Biography. London: Chatto & Windus, 2000.
Just a few things of interest from the past few weeks, internet-surfing taking a back seat to Life… a few exhibitions, a bit about Bunnies, Shakespeare’s wife and her “second best bed.,” a few new books of note, the Bluestockings, a ton of reading from Women’s History month, and Jane Austen and drinking…
Here’s my favorite, about Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway:
Anne Hathaway – maybe – wikipedia
“Anne Hathaway” – by Carol Ann Duffy
‘Item I gyve unto my wief my second best bed…’ (from Shakespeare’s will)
The bed we loved in was a spinning world
of forests, castles, torchlight, cliff-tops, seas
where he would dive for pearls. My lover’s words
were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses
on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme
to his, now echo, assonance; his touch
a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.
Some nights I dreamed he’d written me, the bed
a page beneath his writer’s hands. Romance
and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste.
In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on,
dribbling their prose. My living laughing love –
I hold him in the casket of my widow’s head
as he held me upon that next best bed.
Some interesting news in the world of Calvin Coolidge: an eyewitness account to his swearing in as President in the early morning of August 3, 1923 in Plymouth, VT, this account from Coolidge’s chauffeur Joseph M. McInerney. His memoir “As I Remember” was recently acquired by the Vermont Historical Society’s Leahy Library: you can read the full document of 11 pages online here:
(scroll down below the comments to see the photographs)
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Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press
For Women’s History Month, the 31 daily posts on women involved in bibliography – historical printers, librarians, cataloguers, and archivists – that were posted on the twitter and facebook pages of the Women in Book History Bibliography website, are all now available on the website: “Why It Matters: Teaching Women Bibliographers” by Kate Ozment. Scroll down to read all 31 profiles – fascinating!
PW is first to report that, five days after receiving the manuscript, Atria’s Daniella Wexler preempted a debut historical novel,
Brontë’s Mistress by Finola Austin, based on the true, heretofore untold story of Lydia Robinson and her affair with Branwell Brontë. According to the publisher, “the novel gives voice to the courageous, flawed, complex woman slandered in Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Life of Charlotte Brontë as the ‘wicked’ elder seductress who corrupted the young Brontë brother, driving him to an early grave and bringing on the downfall of the entire Brontë family.” Danielle Egan-Miller at Browne & Miller negotiated the deal for world English and audio rights.
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Austen biographer Claire Harman has a new book out: Murder by the Book: The Crime That Shocked Dickens’s London “the fascinating, little-known story of a Victorian-era murder that rocked literary London, leading Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, and Queen Victoria herself to wonder: Can a novel kill?” (how about Ulysses??)
A new book out which every Jane Austen book club should have!
Gin Austen: 50 Cocktails to Celebrate the Novels of Jane Austen, Colleen Mullaney shares drink recipes inspired by the novels and characters of Jane Austen. Mullaney also digs into the history of drinks that were popular during Austen’s time, like flips, juleps, toddies, shrubs and sours, and gives tips on methods to prepare them and what vessels to serve them in.
“In Austen’s 1814 novel Mansfield Park, Fanny Price outgrows her childlike timidness and becomes a modest, morally just, beautiful young woman. After enduring the rudeness of her aunt Norris, the demands of her aunt Bertram and the disdain of her cousins, she finally finds love with the dashing [?!!!] son of Sir Thomas of Mansfield Park. After all of that, who would not have need of something light and refreshing?
Host your next book club gathering with a fun drinking game and a pitcher of Fanny’s Folly, a cocktail inspired by Fanny Price.
Here’s how to play: After reading the same novel, all players should watch a movie version of the story and drink as follows:
A character comes galloping up or goes rushing off on horseback: 1 sip
A mention of marriage: 1 sip
A display of haughty independence: 2 sips
A declaration of love: 2 sips
A display of marriageable skills (foreign languages, playing the piano or harp, singing, dancing or embroidery): 2 sips
A proposal of marriage: finish your drink
Any player exclaims, “That’s not how it happened in the book!”: finish your drink and refill everyone else’s
A friend of mine tells me that her son-in-law is playing the Jane Austen role-playing game “Good Society” – you can too – here is the information: https://storybrewersroleplaying.com/good-society/
How come nobody looks Happy??
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And finally, break open your piggy bank for this first edition of Sense & Sensibility:
Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility anonymously issued as “By a Lady” in 1811, was her first published novel. Presented as a triple-decker in an edition of about a thousand copies, the three volumes offered are in olive drab half calf. From the Estate of Frances “Peggy” Brooks, it is a sound set, and quite scarce in a period binding (est. $30,000-40,000). At Doyle’s April 17, 2019 (tomorrow!!): https://doyle.com/auctions/19bp01-rare-books-autographs-maps/rare-books-autographs-maps
Welcome to my weekly round-up: from amorous footmen to Dickens’s shoddy treatment of his wife, the upstanding Mr. Knightley, and dieting with Jane; with further thoughts on the taxation of dogs, the Mona Lisa, dust jackets and Austen’s Sanditon – can one have a life without knowing all this??
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A new journal to be launched in April: The Southampton Centre for Nineteenth-Century Research‘s enthusiastic PhD students have just launched a fabulous new online, Open Access peer reviewed journal called Romance, Revolution and Reform: https://www.rrrjournal.com/
So, it’s common knowledge now that Dickens left his wife for another woman – Ellen Tiernan the actress (fabulous book on this by Claire Tomalin: The Invisible Woman – if you have not read this, go out and buy it right now) – but letters recently discovered and studied by Professor John Bowen reveal that Dickens tried, like so many other men who had strayed and wanted out, to have his wife Catherine declared insane and institutionalized…https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2019/research/dickens-letters-asylum/
New book out on Jane Austen: The Jane Austen Diet: Austen’s Secrets to Food, Health, and Incandescent Happiness, by Bryan Kozlowski. See the Jane Austen VOGUE (of all places!) for an article on the author, the book, and Jane as a nutritionist! (lots of meat, lots of walking…)
Smith, Mary, of Newcastle. The complete house-keeper, and professed cook : calculated for the greater ease and assistance of ladies, house-keepers, cooks, &c. &c. : containing upwards of seven hundred practical and approved receipts … / by Mary Smith …Newcastle: Printed by T. Slack, for the author, 1772.
Well, since we just got a dog (our 5th Springer Spaniel), I can’t resist passing this on from All Things Georgian – we all know of some of the ridiculous taxes imposed on the Georgians (think windows, candles, hair powder, and wallpaper, to name a few), but this one took forever to pass and was difficult to implement: Parliament going to the Dogs we could say:
Hayman, Francis; A Hound, a Spaniel and a Pug (A Portrait of a Mastiff); Norfolk Museums Service
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And because we always have to end with Jane: here are the wildly anticipated first photos of the filming of Andrew Davies’ Sanditon, Austen’s unfinished manuscript giving little direction with the plot and nearly no info on the possible Hero – so from what we DO know, who are these people??
This week finds me jumping from Jane Austen’s sister-in-law Fanny Austen, to crazy bibliophiles, Rossetti’s wombats, the Coloring craze, Princess Margaret, and on to London, muons (whatever they are…), and more of course – it’s a mad world of information out there…
A new website and blog by Sheila Johnson Kindred, where she will explore Jane Austen’s naval world. Kindred is the author of Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen: https://www.sheilajohnsonkindred.com/
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This made me laugh: always great stuff on The Londonist
-which led me to this: https://franceswolfrestonhorbouks.com/, a blog by Sarah Lindenbaum, who is seeking to reconstruct the book collection of Frances Wolfreston (1607-1677), a gentrywoman from the English midlands with an expansive library; over 200 books have been identified thus far.
—…which leads you to this illustration from the color week in 2017: Louis Rhead, Romeo & Juliet, for Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb—-and then back to #colorourcollections on twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23colorourcollections&src=tyah
A new chamber in the Great Pyramid? If you know what a “muon” is, you might know that the use of muon technology has revealed an as yet undiscovered chamber in the Great Pyramid, where remaining treasures may lie: https://blog.oup.com/2019/02/power-mysterious-muon/
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Here’s a bit of a head-scratcher: with thanks to Tony Grant:
The article shows a letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra that Ms. Watson has transcribed; but she states: “You can actually see how they have changed their manuscript – how Jane Austen changed Pride and Prejudice as she’s writing it… That blows my mind a bit. You see it, and you think – that’s so much better after she’s edited it than before.”
Well, I’m sorry but as far as I know there are no manuscripts of Pride and Prejudice, or any of the other 5 novels other than the cancelled chapters of Persuasion – so this is very interesting if she has been transcribing a P&P manuscript??
An 1800 letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra
“Dorothea’s Daughter is a stunning new collection of short stories based on novels by Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy. They are postscripts, rather than sequels, entering into dialogues with the original narratives by developing suggestions in the text. The authors’ conclusions are respected, with no changes made to the plot; instead, Barbara Hardy draws out loose threads in the original fabric to weave new material, imagining moments in the characters’ future lives.”
The stories are:
Twilight in Mansfield Parsonage (Mansfield Park by Jane Austen)
Mrs Knightley’s Invitation (Emma by Jane Austen)
Adèle Varens (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë)
Lucy Snowe and Paulina Bretton: the Conversation of Women (Villette by Charlotte Brontë)
Edith Dombey and Son (Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens)
Harriet Beadle’s Message (Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens)
Lucy Deane (The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot)
Dorothea’s Daughter (Middlemarch by George Eliot)
’Liza-Lu Durbeyfield (Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy)
Has anyone read this? It was first published in 2011. I’ve just ordered it and will let you know my thoughts…
Thanks for visiting… and Happy Reading…
ps: just a note as to why I leave in the full url of each link: if an imbedded link goes bad or far off into cyberspace, it is easier to find it if you have the details in the url – it doesn’t look as pretty, sorry to say, but more helpful in the end..
Jane Austen in Vermont 