Jane Austen Throwdown

The settings that Jane Austen chose for her characters were important to her plot. Much of Northanger Abbey was set in Bath, Elizabeth and the Gardiners traveled to Derbyshire where Pemberley lay, Lydia got into trouble in Brighton, and Box Hill, where Emma was so rude to Miss Bates, is set in Surrey.

We now ask you to choose two of your favorite Jane Austen locations. Bath or London? Steventon Rectory or Chawton Cottage?

Two of Your Favorite Jane Austen Locations

Bath, an ancient city, whose Roman Baths and drinking waters attracted rich and poor alike. It was said that more doctors and apothecaries were licensed in Bath than any other city in Great Britain.

London, the largest city in Europe in Jane's day. She would visit her brother, Henry, who lived in town and acted as her agent. Jane most particularly liked London's parks and gardens, and would frequent the shops, bringing back items for her family.

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Bath or London?

Bath London

Steventon Rectory. Jane spent most of her childhood in Steventon Rectory. Here is where she learned to write, and where her close-knit family nurtured her talent. When she learned that her parents had made plans to move to Bath and from a home she loved, Jane fainted.

Chawton Cottage was refurbished by Jane's rich brother Edward, who invited her, Cassandra, and Mrs. Austen to live there. Jane spent her most productive writing years during her time in Chawton, revising Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Northanger Abbey, and writing Emma, Persuasion, and Mansfield Park. She began Sanditon there, completing 11 chapters before succumbing to her fatal illness.

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Steventon Rectory or Chawton Cottage?

Steventon Rectory Chawton Cottage

Georgian Era Houses in England are Haute

Recently, Steventon House in Basingstoke, Hampshire was put on the market for sale. It has quite a pedigree. It was built as a rectory for the parish church in 1820 by Jane Austen’s brother Edward to replace her birthplace, Steventon Rectory, which was not considered well situated, required extensive repairs, and was not quite swank enough for his son William Knight who was taking over the parish duties from his cousin Henry Austen, Jane’s brother. Sadly, Jane Austen’s birthplace was demolished and all that remains today is the water pump. So, if you have £4.5 million sitting around collecting dust in your library, Steventon House with 51 acres, a cottage, a carriage house, tennis courts, swimming pool and extensive gardens could be yours – but don’t procrastinate. According to the London Times, buyers have been queuing up for the opportunity. It appears that Georgian properties in England are haute and a great investment if you can afford it. If I had my druthers, I would buy one too.

Cheers, Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Steventon Rectory: Jane Austen's Childhood home

Below sits a photograph of all that remains of Steventon Rectory, which was razed in 1820 shortly after Jane's death: A field with trees and a metal pump in an enclosure (you can view it at left of the photo). This pump replaced the wood pump from Jane's time (see drawing).




The back of the Steventon Rectory, drawn by Jane's niece, Anna Lefroy, gives few clues about the size of the house or what the front looked like. There seems to be a confusion as to how large the house actually was. (Why Was Jane Austen Sent away to School at Seven? An Empirical Look at a Vexing Question. by Linda Robinson Walker)

The lane that connected the rectory to Steventon Church resembled the rutted road in this photograph. These roads would get quite muddy during rainy weather.

Ladies often wore pattens over their delicate slippers to lift their feet off the mud. Metal pattens, like the one in this illustration, made a clicking noise on pavement. They would most likely sink in mud; and I imagine Jane and her sister, Cassandra, wore a device that more closely resembled a wooden clog to prevent the patten from sinking.
Regardless of how many precautions a lady took, a long walk through wet fields and muddy lanes resulted in dirty hems and shoes, as depicted by Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Bennett in 2005's Pride and Prejudice.

In Chapter II of Memoirs of Jane Austen, J. Edward Austen-Leigh wrote about the demise of the patten, which had become a distant memory in 1871:

The other peculiarity was that, when the roads were
dirty, the sisters took long walks in pattens. This defence against wet
and dirt is now seldom seen. The few that remain are banished from good
society, and employed only in menial work; but a hundred and fifty years
ago they were celebrated in poetry, and considered so clever a
contrivance that Gay, in his 'Trivia,' ascribes the invention to a god
stimulated by his passion for a mortal damsel, and derives the name
'Patten' from 'Patty.'

The patten now supports each frugal dame,
Which from the blue-eyed Patty takes the name.

But mortal damsels have long ago discarded the clumsy implement. First
it dropped its iron ring and became a clog; afterwards it was fined down
into the pliant galoshe--lighter to wear and more effectual to protect--a
no less manifest instance of gradual improvement than Cowper indicates
when he traces through eighty lines of poetry his 'accomplished sofa'
back to the original three-legged stool.

As an illustration of the purposes which a patten was intended to serve,
I add the following epigram, written by Jane Austen's uncle, Mr. Leigh
Perrot, on reading in a newspaper the marriage of Captain Foote to Miss
Patten:--

Through the rough paths of life, with a patten your guard,
May you safely and pleasantly jog;
May the knot never slip, nor the ring press too hard,
Nor the _Foot_ find the _Patten_ a clog.

Read more about Steventon here:

You can view more photographs of Steventon and the surrounding area here.

To read the excellent and detailed article about Steventon Rectory by Linda Robinson Walker, click here.

View an image of a wood patten in an article about Regency Footwear here.