Inquiring readers: While I am at JASNA’s meeting in NYC this weekend, I leave you with this delightful description of Catherine Morland as a very young girl. I have often wondered how much Jane Austen described her own character. After all, she lived with a house full of boys and must have played cricket with them and slid down the slope behind Steventon Rectory during the snow! Interestingly, Jane Austen wrote the description in one long paragraph, which my images break up. I love the tongue-in-cheek quality of her depiction of Catherine, yet she manages to describe exactly what a young lady’s accomplishments OUGHT to be.
**A family of ten children will be always called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number. (Portait of Sir William Young and family, Johann Zoffany.) Walker Art Gallery
Description of Catherine Morland
A family of ten children will be always called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number; but the Morlands had little other right to the word, for they were in general very plain, and Catherine, for many years of her life, as plain as any. She had a thin, awkward figure, a sallow skin without color, dark, lank hair, and strong features,— so much for her person. And not less unpropitious for heroism seemed her mind.
Embroidered 18th century handkerchief. “The ball once struck off, Away flies the boy, To the next destind post, And then home with joy.” *Image @CNN
She was fond of all boys’ plays, and greatly preferred cricket, not merely to dolls, but to the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, — nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush. Indeed, she had no taste for a garden; and if she gathered flowers at all, it was chiefly for the pleasure of mischief, — at least so it was conjectured, from her always preferring those which she was forbidden to take. Such were her propensities. Her abilities were quite as extraordinary.
Girl sketching, by Henry Raeburn. c. 1811 Image @Sudley House
Catherine Morland’s Accomplishments
She never could learn or understand anything before she was taught; and sometimes not even then, for she was often inattentive and occasionally stupid. Her mother was three months in teaching her only to repeat the “Beggar’s Petition;” and after all, her next sister, Sally, could say it better than she did. Not that Catherine was always stupid,— by no means: she learnt the fable of “The Hare and many Friends” as quickly as any girl in England. Her mother wished her to learn music; and Catherine was sure she should like it, for she was very fond of tinkling the keys of the old forlorn spinnet; so, at eight years old, she began. She learnt a year, and could not bear it; and Mrs. Morland, who did not insist on her daughters being accomplished in spite of incapacity or distaste, allowed her to leave off. The day which dismissed the music-master was one of the happiest of Catherine’s life. Her taste for drawing was not superior; though whenever she could obtain the outside of a letter from her mother, or seize upon any other odd piece of paper, she did what she could in that way, by drawing houses and trees, hens and chickens, all very much like one another.
Dancing Masters Ball, 1794, Isaac Cruikshank. Childrens balls were arranged so that children could practice their dancing lessons. Image: Courtesy of Yale University, Lewis Walpole Digital Image Library Call Number 794.8.27.1
Writing and accounts she was taught by her father; French by her mother: her proficiency in either was not remarkable, and she shirked her lessons in both whenever she could. What a strange, unaccountable character!— for with all these symptoms of profligacy at ten years old, she had neither a bad heart nor a bad temper; was seldom stubborn, scarcely ever quarrelsome, and very kind to the little ones, with few interruptions of tyranny; she was moreover noisy and wild, hated confinement and cleanliness, and loved nothing so well in the world as rolling down the green slope at the back of the house.
Below: Catherine as I envision her when she meets Henry Tilney
Head of a girl
Louise Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Citations:
*Did baseball begin in 18th-century England?, By Simon Hooper, CNN, June 9, 2010 8:29 a.m. EDT
**A portrait of Sir William Young and his large family shows a picture of 18th century wealth in a fashionably bucolic setting. A “conversation piece”, this depiction was meant to tell a story. The artist, Johann Zoffany, helped develop this type of piece, positioning the sitters as if they are actors. The family is wearing a type of fancy dress, 17th century costumes inspired by century-old portraits by Sir Anthony Van Dyck . This type of nostalgia was extremely popular in Britain around 1770. Michael Henry Adams, A Queen for Today! Huffington Post, April 22, 2009.
Jane Austen's World 
Fascinating, she is a very real human being.
I also followed the link “Did Baseball begin…..” which I found intriguing, being an Englishman I’m expected to love cricket (I once did til it became polluted); my young son who is Australian by birth, instead of cricket took to T-Ball then onto Baseball and ever since I’ve become a fan of that game.
I must admit that I’m tickled pink that it has it’s origins in England.Thank you for opening my eyes to this
:-)
I don’t doubt Jane Austen played cricket, and Catherine Morland can stand in for her in that autobiographical way, as I am sure Lizzie Bennett and Anne Elliot do so in other ways. Anne Hathaway in Becoming Jane had a go, and it was nice to see the curved bats. Northanger has a humour and vivacity that is very engaging. It is a sort of innocent abroad adventure, and gives a little glimpse into way young people could get to meet each other within the bounds by using the MC at the Assembly Rooms. I find it interesting that we seem to know more about Bath from Jane than London, yet she lived a few miles south of that city. As for cricket, there seems to be a few cricket teams in the US, and they send a team to international competitions, along with Netherlands, Sweden, and Canada, and many other countries affiliated with the ICC. I thought the article on baseball’s origins interesting, and I don’t think Americans should be bothered by its English roots. Many modern sports seem to have originated there: football of most varieties, basketball, ball and ball games like baseball and cricket, softball. Even the modern Olympic Games have British origins-you have to extract that piece of history with a pair of long nosed pliers-in the Midlands and western England from at least the 16th century. LordBeariofBow’s Australian son will reflect that here in Australia cricket is of national consequence, and we have a tradition of a Prime Minister’s XI playing visiting sides. The Ashes is the most serious of serious international sporting competitions-probably one of the oldest, it begun in 1882 and only is only played between Australia and England. Each series consists of 5 Test matches of 2 innings each, over 5 days a match, so a total of 10 innings over 25 days. And of the 66 series that have been played 5 were drawn, 31 won by Australia and 30 by England.
The link to baseball history video is very amusing and interesting. Babe Ruth’s quote about the cricket bat being too easy to hit is very telling. The English can’t claim bowling – that was Dutch, and practiced early on in the 1600’s in New York and elsewhere.
My ancestor Sir William Young was a colonial governor and politician; we should not forget the harsh reality which paid for the happy affluence in the picture. The DNB says: ‘ . . [he] inherited four sugar plantations . . and 896 African slaves . . [in] 1791 he embarked on a voyage to the West Indies . . to save his plantations from bankruptcy, which he eventually failed to do, and to gain information about slavery and the sugar industry . . [to] support his agenda in parliament to gain votes for an alternative to the campaign . . [to abolish] the slave trade.
On his tour of the islands Young said he was greeted wholeheartedly by his slaves, and he reciprocated by granting them extra holidays and gifts of herrings and rum, holding balls in the great house, and at Christmas feasting, drinking, dancing, and exchanging gifts. He was pleased that he discovered little evidence of harsh treatment of his and other planters’ slaves. In all of the islands he visited he was observant of the methods of feeding, housing, clothing, disciplining, providing medical care, and religious instruction of the slaves . .
Young . . argued that, by ameliorating the condition of the slaves, their numbers would increase by natural propagation and, in time, the trade from Africa to the islands would die a natural death without intervention by act of parliament. However, Young’s reform plans were naïve and utopian, and Wilberforce . . finally . . [got] the necessary votes to abolish the British transatlantic slave trade.’
The picture hung in my family’s home in my great-grandmother’s time but unfortunately did not belong to us; when it had to be sold my great aunt made a fine copy which still hangs there. The original may be seen in the Walker Gallery Liverpool: http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture-of-month/displaypicture.asp?venue=2&id=353
Thank you for that link Chris, it is most interesting. I see that the Baronetcy is extant, the present incumbent Sir George Young has two sons so it will be with us for a while yet
Really wonderful post Vic – I continue to love your blog! I remember how very funny and true JA’s lead in to the story in Northanger Abbey seemed to me when I first read it – and my delight that she was implying that an ordinary young person with no special talents could the heroine of her own adventure and romance. The whole book is funny and witty – with John Thorpe and the Allens, etc., and it’s lovely to have the pictures you’ve chosen to bring Catherine to life. Thanks!!