Jane Austen remembered
As the bicentenary of Jane Austen’s death approaches, Alan Crosby looks at how local communities are marking the anniversary
There’s an ever-growing interest in Jane Austen’s ancestry (including aristocratic connections) and in the descendants of her brothers, but many towns and villages are marking associations with Britain’s most famous novelist. Numerous events are being held with the involvement of the Jane Austen Society of the United Kingdom ( janeaustensoci.freeuk.com), which has a year-long programme of activities.
A lot is happening in Hampshire – the county where Jane was born, died and lived most of her all-too-short life. But plenty of other places have links with her – because she lived in them (such as Bath), holidayed there (Sidmouth), or had family links. Thus, Stoneleigh Abbey ( stoneleighabbey.org) in Warwickshire was the family home of the Leighs, Jane’s maternal forebears, and talks and tours there commemorate those associations: Jane loved the place and it was possibly the inspiration for Northanger Abbey. Other places which provided settings for scenes in her books have been promoting the connection: the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty even claims that Jane was ‘a Surrey girl’, and it’s true that the famously ghastly picnic in Emma was at Box Hill near Dorking.
Another good example is Lyme Regis, Dorset, which she visited at least twice, and inspired dramatic scenes in Persuasion. She loved the town and you can follow themed walks to see where Jane stayed and the locations of the events in the story.
At Southampton, where Jane lived from 1806 to 1809, there is a festival brilliantly entitled The Stinking Fish of Southampton ( janeausten200.co.uk/event/stinkingfish-southampton-jane-austen-festival), which is a very unflattering quotation from a letter she wrote while living there. Activities include walks, exhibitions and cream teas, all the while asking how Southampton influenced the budding writer.
The Hampshire Genealogical Society
( hgs-familyhistory.com/2013/ 01/jane -austens-200th-anniversary) takes a different approach. It observes that while living at Chawton: “Jane Austen often walked the short distance… to Alton and, in February 1811, she visited Mr Newnham, the apothecary and surgeon, with Miss Beckford”. On returning home, Jane wrote a doggerel verse about the visit, and the society asks: “If your ancestors lived or came to Alton or the surrounding villages – did they see Jane or her family? Did they consult Mr Newnham?” Jane lived there from 1809 until shortly before her death, and Alton has had an annual Jane Austen Regency Week since 2008. So if you have family from this area, maybe your forebears knew her?
Not far up the road in Basingstoke, connections with Jane are also being celebrated. The council proudly says that she was “born in the borough” as Steventon, home for Jane’s first 25 years, is seven miles from the town. In Jane’s time the old borough of Basingstoke was the social centre for North Hampshire. This July a statue by Adam Roud, commemorating Jane’s ties with the town, was unveiled in the market place. It portrays a young woman turning her head as if (explains Adam) someone had just said “Good morning, Jane”.
Jane and her family enjoyed attending balls at Basingstoke’s assembly rooms. She once warned her brother James “not to lose your senses by dancing with the belles of Basingstoke”, and with her characteristic sharp wit observed about a Basingstoke dance in 1800 (when she was 25) that “there was a scarcity of men in general, and a still greater scarcity of any that were good for much”.
Such events provided raw material for novels; they were a perfect opportunity to observe social interaction and the foibles and idiosyncrasies of human nature.
There was a scarcity of men in general and a still greater scarcity of any that were good for much