Letter #6, Post #10

Wednesday 29 February 2012
To Cassandra, from Rowling, "I sent a message to Mr Digweed from Edward, in a letter to Mary Lloyd, which [she] ought to receive to day; but as I know that the Harwoods are not very exact as to their Letters, I may as well repeat it to You-. Mr Digweed is to be informed that Illness has prevented Seward's coming over to look at  the intended Repairs at the Farm, but that he will come, as soon as he can. Mr Digweed may also be informed if you think proper, that Mr & Mrs Milles are to dine here tomorrow, and that Mrs Joan Knatchbull is to be asked to meet them.-" - Jane Austen, Thursday 15-Friday 16 September 1796

The following is an excerpt from Jane Austen Her Homes and Her Friends by Constance Hill, chapter two:

"We follow a path which crosses the churchyard beneath the boughs of an ancient yew-tree, and enter the small silent church. Our attention is caught at once by the squire's pew on the right of the chancel arch. Square and big and towering above the modern benches it stands - solid oak below, but with elegant open tracery above through which the occupants could see and be seen. In the Austens' time a family named Digweed rented [Page 18]  the Manor of Steventon. Its owner was Mr. Thomas Knight, a distant relative of the Rev. George Austen, but the Digweeds held the property for more than a hundred years.

After examining, with great interest, many tablets to Austens and Digweeds, we quit the dark church and step into the sunshine once more; and, passing through a wicket gate, find ourselves upon a wide spreading lawn adorned with great sycamores. Beyond the trees rises a stately mansion of early Tudor date, with its stone porch, its heavy mullioned windows, and its great chimney-stacks all wreathed with ivy - the old Manor House of Steventon.

The house is no longer inhabited, for the present owner, we learn, has migrated to a new mansion erected hard by, but the old building itself has suffered no alteration, as far as its outward walls are concerned, since the Digweeds lived there, when there was much intercourse between the squire's and the rector's families.

We sit down upon a grassy bank under the shade of tall limes and, looking to the right of the old grey building, we can see the corner of a gay flower garden, whose red and white dahlias and yellow sunflowers rise above a high box hedge. To our left is a bowling-green, across which the shadows of great trees are sweeping. Whilst my companion sketches the porch of the Manor House [Page 19] 

THE OLD MANOR HOUSE

[Page 21]  I turn over the leaves of Jane Austen's "Letters" and my eye falls upon these playful remarks, written in November 1800 to her sister Cassandra: "The three Digweeds all came on Tuesday, and we played a pool at commerce. James Digweed left Hampshire to-day. I think he must be in love with you, from his anxiety to have you go to the Faversham balls, and likewise from his supposing that the two elms fell from their grief at your absence. Was not it a gallant idea? It never occurred to me before, but I daresay it was so."

We are told that "Mr. Austen used to join Mr. Digweed in buying twenty or thirty sheep, and that all might be fair it was their custom to open the pen, and the first half of the sheep which ran out were counted as belonging to the rector. Going down to the fold on one occasion after this process had been gone through, Mr. Austen remarked one sheep among his lot larger and finer than the rest. 'Well, John,' he observed to John Bond (his factotum), 'I think we have had the best of the luck with Mr. Digweed to-day, in getting that sheep.' 'Maybe not so much in the luck as you think, sir,' responded the faithful John, 'I see'd her the moment I come in and set eyes on the sheep, so when we opened the pen I just giv'd her a "huck" with my stick, and out a' run.'"^[1][Page 22] 

This is a picture taken of the Steventon Manor House in 2004 by Jeff Dodgson. It is so pretty.

Since Thomas Knight owned the manor house and was the rich relative that adopted Edward I would imagine that would be the reason Edward was concerned about the repairs to the manor house.

Mr. Bridger Seward was Edward's farm bailiff at Chawton. He and his wife lived at the now famous Chawton Cottage until 1808 when Mr. Seward died. Edward then refurbished the cottage in 1809 for Mrs. Austen, Cassandra, Jane and Martha Lloyd to live in.

We covered the Milles in Letter #6, Post #1.


Mrs. Joan-Elizabeth Knathbull of Canterbury, was sort of related to the Austen's through a common ancestor in Sir Edward Knatchbull, 4th Bt. who died in 1730.


Have a great day!
Terrie