Letter 14, Post 7

Thursday 19 December 2013
To Cassandra, from Steventon, "I hope & imagine that Edward Taylor is to inherit all Sir Edw: Dering's fortune as well as all his own fathers." - Jane Austen, Tuesday 18-Wednesday 19 December 1798

Jane was jesting here; it seems that Reverend Edward Taylor (1734-8 December 1798) of Bifrons near Bridge, Kent and Sir Edward Dering, 6th Bt. (1732-8 December 1798) of Surrenden-Dering, near Ashford, Kent both passed away on the same day.

And for even more of the joke, Jane wrote in letter 10, "We went by Bifrons, & I contemplated with a melancholy pleasure, the abode of Him, on whom I once fondly doated." This is probably why she wished for Edward Taylor both inheritances. His own inheritance would have been just fine for me. Take a look:

Bifrons, Kent, home of Edward Taylor

According to Wikipedia, Surrenden-Dering is an interesting place. The village of Pluckley, where the manor is located, has the distinction of being the "most haunted village in Britain." It is said to be haunted by at least twelve ghosts. They also found a Shakespeare manuscript from about 1613, parts 1 and 2 of Henry the IV, at the Surrenden-Dering Manor.

Here is a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluckley

I hope you have a good day today.
Terrie

Letter 14, Post 6

Tuesday 17 December 2013
To Cassandra, from Steventon, "I have received a very civil note from Mrs Martin requesting my name as a Subscriber to her Library which opens the 14th of January, & my name, or rather Yours is accordingly given, My mother finds the Money.-Mary subscribes too, which I am glad of, but hardly expected.-As an inducement to subscribe Mrs Martin tells us that her Collection is not to consist only of Novels, but of every kind of Literature &c &c-She might have spared this pretension to our family, who are great Novel-readers & not ashamed of being so;-but it was necessary I suppose to the self-consequence of half her Subscribers." - Jane Austen, Tuesday 18-Wednesday 19 December 1798

This is a very good post about circulating libraries in Jane Austen's time.
http://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/the-circulating-library-in-regency-times/

As for Mrs. Martin, the notes in the back of the book say she was "probably the Mary Martin who was landlady of the Maidenhead Inn and also held the Excise Office at Basingstoke 1791." There is an article written in the Basingstoke Gazette by Robert Brown on 22 October 2013 about the history of and the re-opening of the Maidenhead Inn which states that the Inn was kept by Mary Martin in 1784, but by 1790 the ownership changed to the Duke of Bolton of Hackwood Park (originally Thomas Orde, 1746-1807). The name of the Inn was changed to Bolton Arms. In 1815 the Inn closed.

Here is a link to this article:
http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/communitynews/memory_lane_old_pictures/10754361.History_repeats_itself_at_inn/?ref=rss

Letter number fourteen was written in 1798, but for the conclusion of this story we go to letter number twenty-three which was written Saturday 25-Monday 27 October 1800. Jane amusingly wrote to Cassandra, "Our whole Neighbourhood is at present very busy greiving over poor Mrs Martin, who has totally failed in her business, & had very lately an execution in her house.-Her own brother & Mr Rider are the principal creditors, & they have seized her effects in order to prevent other people's doing it.-There has been the same affair going on, we are told, at Wilson's, & my hearing nothing of you makes me apprehensive that You, your fellow travellers & all your effects, might be seized by the Bailiffs when you stopt at the Crown & sold altogether for the benefit of the creditors."

There was a Mrs. Ryder we discussed in letter number ten who was the Draper/haberdasher in Basingstoke. Perhaps she and Mr. Rider or Ryder were close friends with Mrs. Martin, both being working women in that era.

Does anyone else have the feeling that there could be a television series about this neighborhood? It could be narrated by Jane Austen and have a Little House on the Prairie feel to it where everyone knows everyone, some get along, others are a little more hard to love, but everyone stops what they are doing and join together when there is trouble.

Just like Mr. Bennett said, "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn."

I hope you have a good day today!
Terrie

Happy Birthday Jane Austen

Monday 16 December 2013

Today is Jane Austen's two-hundred-thirty-eighth birthday. I would say she is doing pretty well.

This is an excerpt from a letter Jane Austen’s father, Revd. George Austen, wrote to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Walter, the morning after Jane was born:

"‘…last night the time came, and without a great deal of warning, everything was soon happily over. We have now another girl, a present plaything for her sister Cassy and a future companion. She is to be Jenny, and seems to me as if she would be as like Henry, as Cassy is to Neddy. Your sister thank God is pure well after it, and sends her love to you and my brother…’"

Jane wrote to Cassandra Tuesday 18 December 1798, “…I am very much obliged to my dear little George for his messages, for his Love at least; - his Duty I suppose was only in consequence of some hint of my favourable intentions towards him from his father or Mother. – I am sincerely rejoiced however that I ever was born, since it has been the means of procuring him a dish of Tea. – Give my best Love to him.”

Little George was her nephew, Edward’s son. He was born in 1795, so he would have been around three years old.

Happy Birthday Jane!

Letter 14, Post 5

Sunday 15 December 2013
To Cassandra, from Steventon, "This morning has been made very gay to us, by visits from our two lively Neighbours Mr Holder & Mr John Harwood." - Jane Austen, Tuesday 18-Wednesday 19 December 1798

We have discussed the Harwoods before. They owned Deane, which is just about 1.32 miles north of Steventon. This is a link to one of the posts:

http://allthings-jane-austen.blogspot.com/2012/05/letter-10-post-24.html

Okay, let's find out who Mr. Holder was. It seems he must have been Mr. James Holder born in 1747. He lived at Ashe Park. He remained a bachelor his entire life. His money ran out in the latter part of his life and he died senile and in poverty. How very sad.

Ashe Park currently.

Ashe is 2 miles north of Steventon. Ashe Rectory was the home of the Lefroy family.

I hope you enjoyed your day today.
Terrie