Letter #10, Post #11

Wednesday 2 May 2012
To Cassandra, from Steventon, "-There has been a great deal of rain here for this last fortnight, much more than in Kent; & indeed we found the roads all the way from Staines most disgracefully dirty.-Steventon lane has its full share of it, & I donot know when I shall be able to get to Deane." - Jane Austen, Saturday 27-Sunday 28 October 1798

Deane, Hants. is a village just 2 miles north of Steventon. Reverend George Austen was the rector there from 1773 until his death in 1805.

The following is from Jane Austen, Her Homes and Her Friends by Constance Hill

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/hill/austen/homes07.html

"The old Manor House of Deane, the home of the Harwoods, has already been spoken of. It is built of dark red brick and has white window frames and a white porch. Deane Lane divides its beautiful grounds from those of the old rectory which formerly stood at a little distance behind a thatched mud wall. The mud wall is still standing and behind it lies a sunny fruit and flower garden, but the old rectory, the home for seven years of Mr. and Mrs. George Austen, has long since [Page 67]  disappeared. At the time we are writing of, it was inhabited by Jane Austen's eldest brother James and his family.

"Early in January 1796, a ball was given at Deane House, which Jane describes in a letter to her sister. We have seen the room where the dancing must have taken place. Its walls are

DEANE HOUSE

panelled and painted white and it has a grand Jacobean chimney-piece which reaches to the ceiling. The floor is of polished wood. Two windows, deeply recessed in the thickness of the wall, look out on to the park with its waving trees.

"At the "Harwood's ball" Jane was somewhat in the position of her own Catherine Morland at the Cotillion ball in Bath, desirous [Page 68]  to escape from one gentleman and to be free to dance with another. "To my inexpressible astonishment," she writes, "I entirely escaped

THE PANELLED ROOM IN DEANE HOUSE

John Lyford. I was forced to fight hard for it, however." Was John Lyford, we wonder, borne away from Jane, as his namesake was borne away from Catherine, "by the resistless pressure of a long string of passing ladies"? [Page 69] 

"The attractive gentleman on this occasion was a Mr. Tom Lefroy, a nephew of the Rector of Ashe."

I am for bed. I am tired tonight. I hope you enjoyed your day!

Terrie