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Archive for the ‘Anglican Church’ Category

London Churches in Austen’s Novels

Posted in 19th Century London, Anglican Church, Georgian London, Jane Austen's World, Mansfield Park, Pride and Prejudice, Regency London, tagged , , , , , on February 27, 2025| 1 Comment »

by Brenda S. Cox

“My dear child, commend Dr. Grant to the deanery of Westminster or St. Paul’s, and I should be as glad of your nurseryman and poulterer as you could be.”—Mrs. Grant to Mary Crawford, Mansfield Park, chapter 22

Churches Mentioned in Mansfield Park

Four real churches are mentioned in Mansfield Park, which talks extensively about the church and clergy. I’ve written about the Garrison Chapel, where the Prices and Henry Crawford went to church. A few days ago, I posted about a church in London, St. George’s, Hanover Square, the wedding venue that Mary Crawford wants to show Fanny. 

Two more real London churches are mentioned in Mansfield Park. Mrs. Grant speaks of the two most well-known churches in England, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral. Mary Crawford tells her sister to greet the nurseryman (who took care of plants) and the poulterer (who provided poultry), but her sister tells her there are no such people in Mansfield. The Grants will need to move to the big city to get such help. She hopes that someone will “commend Dr. Grant to the deanery of Westminster or St. Paul’s,” so they can move to London.

The “deanery” is the office of the dean, the head clergyman of a major church.

Mrs. Grant finally gets that opportunity:

“Dr. Grant, through an interest on which he had almost ceased to form hopes, succeeded to a stall in Westminster, which, as affording an occasion for leaving Mansfield, an excuse for residence in London, and an increase of income to answer the expenses of the change, was highly acceptable to those who went and those who staid.”— Mansfield Park, chapter 48

Dr. Grant, as he had hoped, moves up in the church hierarchy to a prestigious church.  He’s been the rector of a small country church at Mansfield Park. He will still receive the tithe income from that church until he dies, when Edmund will become rector. But Dr. Grant has connections to people with influence who can get him a higher church position. The church worked much like the Navy, where Henry Crawford’s uncle, the Admiral, gets William Price a promotion.

Westminster Abbey

One of Dr. Grant’s friends, or more likely a friend of a friend, gets him a “stall in Westminster,” meaning a position as a prebendary. A prebendary was a church official who sat in a prebendal stall, a seat of honor in the church. The position came with income from a “prebend,” specific church possessions.

Stalls in Westminster Abbey, 1908. Image Credit: Rev. Thomas Davidson 1856-1923 (ed.), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Westminster Abbey is, of course, the church in London where monarchs are crowned, as King Charles III was not long ago. All English coronations have taken place there since 1066. It is not a cathedral or a parish church. Instead it is a “Royal Peculiar,” with a dean like other large churches, but under the direct supervision of the monarch rather than a bishop or archbishop.

Westminster Abbey in London, a “Royal Peculiar” directly under the Crown. Credit: Σπάρτακος, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Westminster Abbey is also, of course, a place where many famous people are buried and memorialized. While Jane Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral, there is a small plaque commemorating her in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey, adjacent to Shakespeare’s memorial.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

St. Paul’s Cathedral, the other place where Dr. Grant hoped to get a position, is the cathedral of the diocese of London. (A diocese is a geographical group of parishes, led by a bishop, whose “seat” is at the cathedral for the diocese.) The history of the church reflects the history of London.

One interesting fact: women were first ordained as priests in the Church of England in 1994, and St. Paul’s first clergywoman was appointed in 1997. Now the Lord Bishop of London is a woman, installed in 2018, with her seat, of course, at St. Paul’s. She is called the Right Reverend and Right Honorable Dame Sarah Mullally, and she is a member of the House of Lords. No doubt Jane Austen would be amazed.

St. Paul’s Cathedral, image ©Brenda S. Cox, 2025

St. Clement’s in Pride and Prejudice

One more London church is mentioned in Jane Austen’s novels. In Pride and Prejudice, Lydia tells her sisters,

“We were married you know, at St. Clement’s, because Wickham’s lodgings were in that parish. And it was settled that we should all be there by eleven o’clock.” 

We don’t know for sure which St. Clement’s in London Austen has in mind. An old nursery rhyme goes, “Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement’s,” and two churches claim to be the St. Clement’s in the rhyme.

It seems most likely that Austen was referring to St. Clement Danes in the Strand, which served a large parish. The parish included areas of cheap lodgings and less savory areas, where Wickham could have afforded lodgings. It was also some distance from Gracechurch Street where the Gardiners lived, better concealing Wickham and Lydia from her family. (Source: Pat Rogers, editor of the Cambridge Pride and Prejudice.)

Another option, according to Rogers, is St. Clement’s Eastcheap on the east side of Clement’s Lane. However, this was a tiny parish only a block from Gracechurch Street, so was less likely to be the parish Wickham chose to lodge in.

The rhyme goes on to talk about not being able to pay a debt until one gets rich, at some unknown future time. Quite appropriate for Wickham, who was deep in debt but always hoping to get rich. 

St. Clement Danes in the Strand, possible location for Lydia and Wickham’s wedding. Image credit: Stephen Richards / St Clement Danes, Strand / CC BY-SA 2.0

Faith in London Today

Another surprise for Jane Austen: In Mansfield Park, Edmund Bertram states, “We do not look in great cities for our best morality.” He implies that there was more virtue in the countryside and more vice in London. That was probably true in Austen’s time, according to all I have read.

However, a survey a few years ago indicated that the opposite is now true: “London is now more religious and socially conservative than the rest of Britain.” According to that survey, Londoners pray more, attend religious services more, and are more conservative on moral questions than those outside London. Also, Christian Londoners help their neighbours and give to charity more than non-religious Londoners. Of course, London is also a diverse religious environment, with people practicing various religious faiths, which are less common outside of the capital.

The London churches Austen mentions in Mansfield Park are still thriving.

Other churches mentioned by name in Jane Austen’s novels and letters

Garrison Chapel

St. Swithin’s, Walcot and other churches in Northanger Abbey

St. George’s, Hanover Square

St. Paul’s, Covent Garden: Actors’ Church

Austen Family Churches

Steventon

Chawton

Deane

Hamstall Ridware and Austen’s First Cousin, Edward Cooper

Adlestrop and the Leigh Family

Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel and Mansfield Park

Great Bookham and Austen’s Godfather, Rev. Samuel Cooke

Ashe and the Lefroy Family

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St George’s, Hanover Square and Mansfield Park

Posted in Anglican Church, Churches of the Austen family, Georgian London, Jane Austen's religion, Jane Austen's World, Mansfield Park, Regency London, Sense and Sensibility, tagged , , , , on February 24, 2025| 2 Comments »

By Brenda S. Cox

“. . . perhaps you would not mind passing through London, and seeing the inside of St. George’s, Hanover Square. Only keep your cousin Edmund from me at such a time: I should not like to be tempted.”—Mary Crawford, Mansfield Park, chapter 43

Mansfield Park includes much more discussion of the church than any other Austen novel. Not surprisingly, it also names more real churches than the other novels do.

In an earlier post we explored the Garrison Chapel, where Fanny Price and her family worship in Portsmouth. Henry Crawford attends with them on his visit. Perhaps this symbolizes his attempts to reform himself and become worthy of Fanny; attempts that ultimately fail.

Remains of the Garrison Chapel in Portsmouth where the Prices and Henry Crawford worshiped.

Henry’s sister Mary names another real church in a letter to Fanny. She wants Fanny to let her and Henry take Fanny back to Mansfield from Portsmouth, where Fanny has been staying with her family. Fanny is unhappy and unhealthy, but will not commit the impropriety of going back to Mansfield Park before her uncle sends for her. Mary wants to take Fanny to see Henry’s estate and then pass through London on the way to Mansfield.

She suggests visiting St. George’s, Hanover Square. This was a popular church for weddings among the upper classes of London. Mary hopes Fanny will marry Henry there. At the same time, Mary says it might tempt her to marry Edmund. She doesn’t want to marry a clergyman, or a second son who will not inherit an estate, but she is attracted to Edmund.

St. George’s Hanover Square exterior. According to the church website, “The classical front with six great Corinthian columns supporting a pediment represented a new trend in English Church design.”

St. George’s, Hanover Square Today

During a recent visit to London, I had the privilege of worshiping at St. George’s, Hanover Square on a Sunday morning. The service was a Sung Eucharist, a Communion service in traditional language, with beautiful singing from the choir and impressive organ music. During the service, the congregation renewed their baptismal vows.

St. George’s Hanover Square interior. The painting of the Last Supper over the altar, and the surrounding carvings, were installed in 1724. The seven silver hanging lights in the church represent the seven lamps of fire burning before God’s throne, according to the book of Revelation in the Bible.

The church also offers brief midday services from the Book of Common Prayer on weekdays and several other Communion services during the week. Weekday “Morning Calm” services are held during termtime, as “a short period of reflection, contemplation, and relaxation before the challenges of the day begin.”

Nowadays the area around Hanover Square is mostly offices and businesses. I was told that most people in the current congregation live farther away, since few people live close to the church now.

The signboard for St. George’s Hanover Square lists services, extensive opening hours, and rules such as no drugs in the church and no sleeping on pews.

Wealthy Mayfair

Hanover Square is in Mayfair. In Austen’s England, many wealthy people had large houses in Mayfair or surrounding areas. In Sense and Sensibility, the Palmers live in Hanover Square, while the Middletons, Mrs. Ferrars, and Willoughby live nearby in Mayfair. Mrs. Jennings and John and Fanny Dashwood live in Marylebone, an area just north of Mayfair. It developed when Mayfair could no longer accommodate all those who wanted fashionable, elegant housing. (Source: The Annotated Sense and Sensibility, David Shapard.)

St. George’s is the parish church of Mayfair, where the wealthy worshiped. In 1711, Parliament had passed an Act for the building of fifty new churches in and around London. The wealthy of Mayfair petitioned for a church, which was completed in 1725. The patron saint of the church is St. George, a Christian martyr of the third century who is also the patron saint of England.

Rectors of St. George’s Hanover Square during Austen’s time and thereafter. Some held other influential church positions as well.

The parish was large, with a vestry of 101 vestrymen. These included 7 dukes, 14 earls, 7 barons, and 26 other titled people. A vestry, led by the church’s rector and churchwardens, decides matters relating to the church and the secular parish. (Mr. Knightley, Mr. Weston, Mr. Cole, and Mr. Cox are apparently on the vestry for their parish, as they are “busy over parish business” in Emma.) The St. George’s, Hanover Square vestry dealt with local issues including street lighting, refuse disposal, nightwatchmen, and a workhouse for the poor.

St. George’s Hanover Square eagle lectern. Many churches of Austen’s time had lecterns similar to this, where the Bible was read to the congregation. (The eagle symbolized the Word of God because supposedly it could fly directly into the sun without closing its eyes, so it was like the Bible, leading people to God with eyes open. Eagles’ wings also symbolized carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth.)
Pulpit of St. George’s, Hanover Square

Rich and Poor

While the wealthy owned mansions in the area, most spent only the winter in London, passing the rest of the year on their country estates. The back alleys behind the mansions teemed with poverty and misery year-round. In the early 1800s, the Evangelical movement began to awaken the church to the needs of the poor. St. George’s established a parish school for poor children in 1804, supported by public subscriptions. Later in the century, the church initiated and supported extensive projects to help the working classes of the area.

But the wealthy ran the church in Austen’s time. Around the gallery (balcony) are listed the churchwardens, year by year. Anglican churches generally have two elected churchwardens, responsible for financial accounts, movable property of the church, keeping order, and other administrative responsibilities. The churchwardens listed on St. George’s galleries for the 1700s and early 1800s sound impressive: Viscounts, Earls, Lords, Sirs, Honorables, and Esquires.

St. George’s Hanover Square balcony listing early churchwardens. Many were titled men.

Music

The composer George Friderick Handel lived about a four minute walk from the church. He helped choose the organ and organist for the new church. He had a pew there and worshiped at St. George’s until he died. He wrote the Messiah in his house nearby on Brook Street, which is now a museum.

St. George’s Hanover Square organ pipes; a new organ was installed in 1972. The original organ had 1514 pipes and three manuals (keyboards for the hands). It cost £500 in 1725.

Weddings

Since it was at the heart of the wealthy district, St. George’s, Hanover Square was the popular place for weddings of the wealthy and influential. In 1816, the church hosted 1,063 weddings! Famous people including Percy Bysshe Shelley, Benjamin Disraeli, George Eliot (Mary Lewes), and Theodore Roosevelt were married at St. George’s. Mary Crawford was likely staying near there with her wealthy London friends, and she may have attended church there. So it was the first place she thought of for her own and her brother’s weddings. It is still a popular venue for weddings, though not as much so as in Austen’s time.

On Thursday, we’ll look at the other two real churches mentioned in Mansfield Park, the two most famous churches in England. Do you know which ones they are? We’ll also consider which London church Lydia and Wickham married in!

All images above ©Brenda S. Cox, 2025.

Churches mentioned by name in Jane Austen’s novels and letters

Garrison Chapel

St. Swithin’s, Walcot and other churches in Northanger Abbey

London Churches in Austen’s Novels

St. George’s, Hanover Square

St. Paul’s, Covent Garden: Actors’ Church

Austen Family Churches

Steventon

Chawton

Deane

Hamstall Ridware and Austen’s First Cousin, Edward Cooper

Adlestrop and the Leigh Family

Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel and Mansfield Park

Great Bookham and Austen’s Godfather, Rev. Samuel Cooke

Ashe and the Lefroy Family

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Jane Austen’s Christmases

Posted in Anglican Church, Christmas, Jane Austen's World, tagged , on December 23, 2024| 4 Comments »

By Brenda S. Cox

“Immediately surrounding Mrs. Musgrove were the little Harvilles, whom she was sedulously guarding from the tyranny of the two children from the Cottage, expressly arrived to amuse them. On one side was a table, occupied by some chattering girls, cutting up silk and gold paper; and on the other were tressels and trays, bending under the weight of brawn and cold pies, where riotous boys were holding high revel; the whole completed by a roaring Christmas fire, which seemed determined to be heard, in spite of all the noise of the others. . . .

Mrs. Musgrove . . . observ[ed] with a happy glance round the room, that after all she had gone through, nothing was so likely to do her good as a little quiet cheerfulness at home. . . .

” ‘I hope I shall remember, in future,’ said Lady Russell, as soon as they were reseated in the carriage, ‘not to call at Uppercross in the Christmas holidays.’ Every body has their taste in noises as well as in other matters . . .”—Persuasion, Vol. 2, chapter 2

The Musgrove family at Christmas

Jane Austen gives us only brief glimpses of Christmas in her world. Here Mrs. Musgrove and Lady Russell think very differently about what makes a pleasant Christmas. The Musgrove family are enjoying crafts, food, a Christmas fire, and children having fun and making noise.

Family and Friends

At Christmas, people gathered with friends and family, as we still do today. In Northanger Abbey, Catherine’s brother James met Isabella Thorpe when he went to spend the Christmas holidays with Isabella’s brother. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth invites the Gardiners to join her and Darcy at Pemberley for Christmas. In Sense and Sensibility, Charlotte Palmer asks the Dashwood sisters to join her at Cleveland for Christmas.

In Emma, Emma’s sister and her husband come to visit for the holidays with their children. They are busy with friends during the mornings, and Mr. Weston insists that they dine with him one eventful evening.

Mr. Elton, at least, enjoys the occasion, saying:

“This is quite the season indeed for friendly meetings. At Christmas every body invites their friends about them, and people think little of even the worst weather. I was snowed up at a friend’s house once for a week. Nothing could be pleasanter. I went for only one night, and could not get away till that very day se’nnight.”—Emma, chapter 13

Mr. Elton drinks too much and proposes to Emma, who rejects him. She is therefore very glad on Christmas day to see

“a very great deal of snow on the ground. . . .The weather was most favourable for her; though Christmas Day, she could not go to church.”—Emma, chapter 16

The snow could be dangerous. And certainly Mr. Woodhouse would find it so.

Church on Christmas Day

The clear implication, though, is that Emma would naturally have gone to church on Christmas day. Churches generally had a good turn-out on Christmas. Communion was generally offered that day (one of only three or four times a year when country churches would offer Communion, also called the Lord’s Supper). Henry Crawford in Mansfield Park assumes that Edmund Bertram will only need to preach on the major holidays when many people attended church:

“A sermon at Christmas and Easter, I suppose, will be the sum total of sacrifice.”— Mansfield Park, chapter 23

Edmund, of course, plans to live in his parish and lead services and preach there every Sunday, not just on holidays.

For each church holiday, the Book of Common Prayer, handbook of the Church of England, prescribed specific prayers and Bible readings that would be the same every year. The “collect” prayer from the 1790 Book of Common Prayer for “the Nativity of our Lord, or the birth day of CHRIST, commonly called Christmas-day” is:

“Almighty God, who hast given us thy only begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin; grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit, through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.”

Bible readings for the day were from the first chapter of the book of Hebrews and the first chapter of the book of John, both about the coming of Christ.

In a recent talk by Rachel and Andrew Knowles on “A Regency Christmas,” they pointed out that Christmas day, and the whole Christmas season, was a popular time for weddings in the churches. So perhaps that was Austen’s little joke, having Mr. Elton propose right before Christmas! Babies were also christened on that day, and Christmas was a time for ordaining new clergymen. Edmund Bertram goes to Peterborough for ordination during Christmas week. When he delays his return, Mary Crawford thinks he may be staying for “Christmas gaieties.”

Christmas Gaieties

Miss Bingley uses the same term when she writes to Jane Bennet:

“I sincerely hope your Christmas in Hertfordshire may abound in the gaieties which that season generally brings, and that your beaux will be so numerous as to prevent your feeling the loss of the three of whom we shall deprive you.”—Pride and Prejudice, chapter 21

What did those gaieties involve?

Customs that were consistent across the country were gathering with family and friends, eating a special meal, and giving gifts and money to the poor. Austen mentions a few additional traditions.

Regency Christmas celebrations usually involved a special meal with family and friends.
Farmer Giles’s Establishment, Christmas day, 1800, by William Heath, 1830. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

Gifts

Christmas was a time for charity, for giving gifts to the poor and to those in service occupations, like the local butcher. These gifts of money were called “Christmas boxes.” According to the Knowles’s research, newspapers even published lists of what certain wealthy people were giving to the poor at Christmas. 

In families, it appears that gifts were given mainly to children. I found only one mention in Austen:

“On the following Monday, Mrs. Bennet had the pleasure of receiving her brother and his wife, who came as usual to spend the Christmas at Longbourn. . . . The first part of Mrs. Gardiner’s business on her arrival was to distribute her presents and describe the newest fashions. . . . The Gardiners stayed a week at Longbourn; and what with the Phillipses, the Lucases, and the officers, there was not a day without its engagement. Mrs. Bennet had so carefully provided for the entertainment of her brother and sister, that they did not once sit down to a family dinner.”—Pride and Prejudice, chapter 25

It’s not clear if Mrs. Gardiner brought gifts for everyone because it was Christmas, or if she was just bringing gifts because she was coming from London to the country on a visit.

Games

Many played games at Christmastime. Jane Austen wrote in a letter to Cassandra from Portsmouth, on Jan. 17, 1809 about a change in the fashions for Christmas games:

“I have just received some verses in an unknown hand, and am desired to forward them to my nephew Edward at Godmersham:

Alas! poor Brag, thou boastful game! What now avails thine empty name?

Where now thy more distinguished fame? My day is o’er, and thine the same,

For thou, like me, art thrown aside At Godmersham, this Christmas tide;

And now across the table wide Each game save brag or spec. is tried.

Such is the mild ejaculation Of tender-hearted speculation.”

Card games and dancing were popular Christmas activities.
Farmer Giles’s Establishment Christmas 1816 by William Heath, 1830. Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

Dancing

Austen’s characters dance at Christmastime. Sir Thomas Bertram holds a ball for Fanny Price during the Christmas holidays. Sir John Middleton hosts a Christmas dance, followed by a hunt the next morning:

“‘He [Willoughby] is as good a sort of fellow, I believe, as ever lived,’ repeated Sir John. ‘I remember last Christmas at a little hop at the park, he danced from eight o’clock till four, without once sitting down.’

“‘Did he indeed?’ cried Marianne with sparkling eyes, ‘and with elegance, with spirit?’

“‘Yes; and he was up again at eight to ride to covert.’”—Sense and Sensibility, chapter 9

Other Christmas Traditions

According to the Knowles, Christmas customs were different between city and country, and between various areas of the country. In some areas old customs like the Yule log and decorating with greenery were dying out, in other areas they were still going strong.

Whatever traditions your family keeps during this holiday season, may you experience much joy and deep peace.

 

If you want to find out more about specific Christmas customs in Austen’s England, check out any of these posts:

Regency Christmas Celebrations answers many questions about Christmas in Austen’s time, and links to posts on Father Christmas and on Christmas trees. 

Christmas Carols  and Christmas Carols of Yore 

Regency Christmas Tree (with links to other Christmas articles) 

Robin Redbreast 

Christmas Cartoons  

Christmas Pie 

Christmas Plum Pudding 

Christmas Games and Songs 

Christmas Evergreen Decorations  and Decorating with Holly 

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The Tour of Doctor Syntax, Book Review

Posted in 18th Century England, Ackermann, Anglican Church, Author interview, Book review, Books Jane Austen Read, Cartoons, Satirical, Clergy, Jane Austen's World, Poetry, Regency Travel, tagged , , on October 14, 2024| 2 Comments »

Reviewed by Brenda S. Cox

“I have seen nobody in London yet with such a long chin as Dr Syntax” (Jane Austen, March 2, 1814).

I just finished reading, cover to cover, a brand-new book which is over 200 years old. The Tour of Doctor Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, by William Combe, is a classic which Jane Austen herself enjoyed. But it’s out in a new edition, with wonderful illustrations, explanations, and comments.

A fun new annotated version of The Tour of Doctor Syntax, including parallels with Jane Austen’s novels!

The story in verse was first published from 1809-1811 as a series in Ackermann’s Poetical Magazine. Ackermann had a series of prints by the great caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson. They featured a country clergyman with a long pointed chin and a tall white wig traveling through the countryside. Ackermann gave Combe the illustrations for each issue of the magazine, and Combe wrote a section of the story to go with them. He didn’t know ahead of time what the pictures would be for the next issue, but somehow he came up with a coherent story. One interesting facet is that Rowlandson apparently intended to satirize the clergy, but Combe made Syntax into a good, learned man, a little silly, but lovable.

A book version came out in 1812. Dr. Syntax was wildly popular and stayed in print, with multiple printings and editions, well into the 1800s.

This new version of The Tour of Doctor Syntax was edited and annotated by an advanced high school class and their professor, Dr. Ben Wiebracht. Ben actually discovered Dr. Syntax through one of my posts right here at Jane Austen’s World. Recognizing its potential for his class on “Jane Austen and Her World,” he asked Vic Sanborn, owner and primary writer of this website, and myself, to share with his class. Vic owns some lovely Rowlandson prints. We both loved connecting with such bright and interested students, who asked knowledgeable questions.

The Book

They’ve done a brilliant job with the book. It starts with a biography of William Combe and the history of the book itself. Combe’s challenges as a writer in Austen’s age were fascinating to me, as a writer myself. A clear introduction explains “the picturesque,” which is mentioned in Austen’s novels. Parallel to the text are straightforward explanations of difficult terms and phrases. That makes them easy to quickly reference. A glossary in the back gives terms previously defined.

The best part, for me, are comments pointing out parallels with Jane Austen’s work. I can’t even begin to list these, but there are many great insights. Some are about the clergy in Austen’s work, since Syntax is an underpaid country curate like Charles Hayter of Persuasion. Many comments have to do with the “picturesque,” “improvement” and country estates ranging from Sotherton to Pemberley. Others relate to the class system, Gothic novels, and other topics.

The full text of the poem/story is opposite explanations, comments, and illustrations, making them easy to access. The Tour of Doctor Syntax, 2024.
“Doctor Syntax Tumbling into the Lake,” by Thomas Rowlandson. One of the lovely full-page illustrations for this new version of The Tour of Doctor Syntax.
Victorian illustration, 1838, of the same scene, by Alfred Crowquill. The Tour of Doctor Syntax includes both the Rowlandson and Crowquill illustrations.

I also loved the illustrations. The editors chose the best versions they could find of each of the full-page, hand-colored pictures by Rowlandson that were the basis of the book. They added illustrations from a later Victorian version, as well as other entertaining and illuminating cartoons and pictures from the time.

Interview with the Editor

I’ll let Dr. Wiebracht himself tell you more about how this book came about.

Ben, please tell me about your class that produced this book.

The class is called “Jane Austen and Her World” and it’s designed for advanced juniors and seniors. The goal is to see Austen’s novels not as sealed-off masterpieces, floating in a historical vacuum, but as windows into her world. Most class days, our Austen reading is accompanied by shorter texts designed to create a sense of context and show how Austen was in conversation with her contemporaries. For instance:

  • We pair Austen’s account of Bath in Northanger Abbey with a number of late 18th-c. satires of Bath, 18th-c. dance music, and illustrations of the city by Rowlandson and others.
  • We pair Catherine’s pseudo-Gothic adventures in Vol. II with excerpts from The Monk, The Castle of Otranto, and The Mysteries of Udolpho.
  • We pair the private theatricals in Mansfield Park with a viewing of a performance of Lover’s Vows, as well as specimens of anti-theatrical criticism from the period, including a satire on private theatricals by Jane’s brothers!
  • We pair the discussion of landscape gardening in Mansfield Park with images from Humphry Repton’s famous “red books” showing “before and after” estate grounds.

The idea is to understand Austen in a deeper way by developing the practice of “reading outward.” And we incorporate that principle in our work for the class. Instead of the usual school essays, students work with me to create a critical edition of a neglected text from Austen’s time, with annotations and other resources that draw connections between the text and Austen’s life and work.

The class enrolled 16 students (the maximum). They hailed from all over the country and world: Japan, China, and many different U.S. states. This was my first time teaching the course, though I developed the core ideas in an Austen unit for a previous course. In the future, I will probably teach the course every three years. The book project in particular is a heavy lift, and I’m not capable of it every year!           

How did you end up studying Dr. Syntax along with Jane Austen?

I have to back up a bit here. In the course of an Austen unit for a previous class, students and I had created a critical edition of a long-forgotten 1795 poem called Bath: An Adumbration in Rhyme. We used that book to launch a new series called “Forgotten Contemporaries of Jane Austen.” Its goals are:

  • to recover neglected but valuable texts from Austen’s time, and
  • to trace new connections between Austen and her contemporaries.

As I was preparing my Austen class, I settled on Doctor Syntax (first brought to my attention in JAW by one of your articles!) for three reasons.

  • First, the poem had undeniable literary-historical importance – one of the all-out bestsellers of the Regency. A critical edition, I thought, was long overdue.
  • Second, many of its themes – from the plight of poor clergy to the “picturesque” – were major concerns of Austen’s novels, too.
  • Finally, the poem was simply a really good read. Combe’s verses are light, fun, and at times even touching, and Rowlandson’s accompanying illustrations are some of his best work. In every way, the poem deserved to be revived!

What do you hope readers will gain from the book?

There are a lot of things I hope people take away! One would be a deeper appreciation of just how engaged Austen was in the debates and issues of her day. Sometimes Austen is talked about as something of a provincial writer, sealed off from the wider Regency world, modestly toiling away on her “pictures of domestic life in country villages,” as she once put it. But when we keep in mind just how much of a smash hit Doctor Syntax was, and when we consider the many, many parallels between this work and Austen’s novels, which our edition lays out in detail, then we see Austen differently. She now starts looking like a very savvy writer, who understood what the major issues of the day were, what readers were interested in. To be sure, she stuck to her convictions and drew on her own experience and observations, but she did so in a way designed to appeal to a broad, national readership.

I’m also excited for people to meet this poet William Combe, who had one of the most interesting lives of any Regency writer. He was a remarkable literary talent. He doesn’t fit the mold of the “Romantic poet,” which is one reason he might be overlooked. Instead he offers a light, generous humor that shows us that Regency poetry wasn’t all about Byronic heroes and Wordsworthian dreamers. There was a sociable, comic side to the poetry of the period. Combe represents that comic side particularly well.

Finally, I would love it if this book inspired other teacher-scholars to undertake collaborative research with their students – especially at the upper-high-school level. There are so many benefits. For students, it’s a more rewarding and enjoyable approach to literary scholarship than the usual school essays. For teachers, it’s a welcome relief from the role of “judge/grader” – instead you get to teach through co-creation, as is done in most trades through the apprenticeship model. And for the reading public, there’s the benefit of the work produced! I am convinced that student involvement, with the right guidance and leadership from the teacher, leads to better scholarship. It certainly has in my experience.

By the way, while we don’t offer a Kindle edition, we do offer a free etext in the form of a downloadable PDF on our website. We decided from the beginning to be an open-access publisher, in part to make it easier for teachers with low-income students to assign our books. The best way to use the e-text is to enable the 2-page view in your pdf reader – that way the text and notes are neatly parallel, as in the physical book. The etext can also be used as a supplement to the physical book – for instance if you want to do a text search for a particular word.

How did you and the students share the work on this project?

Each student was responsible to annotate one of the poem’s 26 cantos, about ten pages of text. I did the other ten cantos myself. Students also had one or more additional responsibilities, which included:

  • Researching aspects of Combe’s life
  • Researching Gilpin and the picturesque
  • Compiling chronologies
  • Drawing maps
  • Designing the cover
  • Editing the text according to scholarly standards

My job was twofold. First, I offered regular feedback on work in progress, helping students learn how to navigate library databases, write good, concise annotations, etc. I also did the parts of the book that were a bit beyond the reach of high-school students, even excellent ones, which all the students who worked on this book were! For example, I wrote most of the introductory materials, as well as some of the trickier annotations. I helped with the final prose, too, to ensure continuity of voice. That doesn’t mean, though, that the best stuff is mine. Many of the best, most insightful annotations in the book are entirely by students, and every one of my students has some of their own writing, their own voice in the final book – which was a major priority for me. And just as students benefited from my feedback, I benefitted from theirs. They fully earned their editor credits in the final book.

Final Thoughts

Dr. Wiebracht and his class did an amazing job. I highly recommend this book, which is available on Amazon and from Jane Austen Books at a discount. I have not yet read the earlier book in the series, Bath: An Adumbration in Rhyme, but now I want to get hold of that and read it, too!

If you’re at the JASNA AGM this month, you can hear Ben and some of his students speak, and get them to sign your copy of the book. (Unfortunately I’m speaking in a slot opposite theirs, as well as other excellent speakers at that time, so you’ll have to choose! It’s always challenging.) Their talk is also available in the virtual version of the AGM.

The price is very reasonable for a book with color illustrations. I hope you’ll get a chance to enjoy and learn from this lovely book!

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Michaelmas

Posted in Anglican Church, Jane Austen's World, Religion in Austen's England, tagged , , , on September 29, 2024| 5 Comments »

By Brenda S. Cox

“Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England . . . he is to take possession before Michaelmas.” –Pride and Prejudice, chapter 1

“People did say you [Mr. Bingley] meant to quit the place entirely at Michaelmas . . .” –Pride and Prejudice, chapter 53

Today, September 29, is Michaelmas (pronounced MICK-ul-muss). In the church calendar, for Catholics and for Anglicans like Austen, this is a “holy day” (from which we get our word holiday). It commemorates St. Michael, the archangel.

Sculpture of the Archangel Michael defeating the devil, from St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague.
Photo by Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sometimes other angels are also commemorated on this day: “St. Michael and All Angels,” or specifically Michael, Gabriel and Rafael, the three angels mentioned by name in the Bible. The word “saint,” from Latin “sanctus,” means “holy one,” so the holy angels of heaven can be considered saints.

“Michaelmas” means the mass of Michael, as “Christmas” means the mass of Christ. Mass is the Catholic version of what Anglicans call the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion, the ceremony where Christians eat unleavened bread and drink wine together to remember Christ’s suffering and death on the cross.

On the Calendar

In earlier times, the church and community were closely intertwined. Church holidays gave the year rhythm and consistency. Judicial, financial, and academic schedules came to revolve around four “quarter days” of the year. For England, these were Lady Day, Midsummer Day, Michaelmas, and Christmas.

March 25, Lady Day: Austen mentions this in her letters as the day when an allowance of money was to begin for her brother James, and as a day when someone was moving houses. In the church, it was the Feast of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary (the “Lady”) that she would have a child, Jesus.

June 24, Midsummer Day: In Emma, Jane Fairfax is supposed to leave at Midsummer, though she gets delayed. The Box Hill picnic takes place at “almost Midsummer.” Midsummer is capitalized, so it means a specific date. On this date, the church celebrates the birth of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus’s coming.

Sept. 29, Michaelmas Day is mentioned in all of Austen’s novels except Northanger Abbey as a date when things happen. Mrs. Jennings thinks Colonel Brandon will be married by Michaelmas. Mr. Bingley is to take possession of Netherfield at Michaelmas, and rumor has it he will leave by the next Michaelmas. In Mansfield Park, Mrs. Norris has been doctoring the coachman for rheumatism from Michaelmas through the winter, and Henry Crawford expects to have a small home nearby at Michaelmas, obviously hoping he and Fanny will be married by then. In Emma, Harriet Smith is amazed that Mr. Elton could be in love with her, since she hardly knew him at Michaelmas. It is probably November when she says this. The Crofts take possession of Kellynch Hall at Michaelmas, and Anne tells her father that Mary has been in “good looks” since Michaelmas. In Sanditon, Lady Denham brings Clara Brereton from London at Michaelmas.

Dec. 25, Christmas Day. In Austen’s novels and shorter works, she mentions Christmas 41 times and Easter 18 times by my count. They often serve to mark dates and times of year.

(For some purposes, Epiphany (Jan. 6) was a quarter day instead of Christmas, and Easter instead of Lady Day. But Midsummer and Michaelmas were still the other quarter days.)

Around these four quarterly dates, rents and payments came due, leases of lands and houses (like Netherfield) began and ended, servants were hired, and local courts held “quarter sessions.”

The academic year also revolved around church dates. The fall term at both Oxford and Cambridge is called Michaelmas term. I was surprised when I was at Cambridge two weeks ago, in mid-September, that the colleges were not yet in session. Then I realized it was not  yet Michaelmas. This year’s fall term starts just after Michaelmas, on Oct. 8. 

In the Church

The Book of Common Prayer (BCP), which gives daily worship services for the Church of England, includes a calendar of saints’ days. By Austen’s time, special services for most of those days were not commonly held in country parishes unless they fell on a Sunday. Christmas Day, though, was celebrated with a church service. In Emma, the weather keeps Emma from going to church on Christmas.

For each saint’s day, the BCP gives relevant Bible readings and a collect (pronounced KAH-lect) prayer for that day. Austen was likely very familiar with these, hearing them every year. For Michaelmas, the clergyman could choose from these readings about angels:

Revelation 12:7-12. “War in heaven”; “Michael and his angels fought against the dragons” [the demons]. Satan is cast out of heaven, but those who believe in Christ “overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” Many depictions of Michael show him defeating Satan, sometimes in the form of a dragon.

Matthew 18:1-10. Jesus says not to despise children, for “their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”

Genesis 32. Jacob wrestles with an angel. This is the same Jacob who earlier saw a vision of a ladder to heaven, with angels going up and down it. The front of Bath Abbey, which Jane Austen must have seen many times, pictures that ladder.

Angels going up and down the ladder to heaven, on the front of Bath Abbey. Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2024.

Daniel 10:4-14. An angel sent to Daniel was delayed by the prince of Persia, apparently a demon, until the archangel Michael, “one of the chief princes,” came to help him. The angel looked like a man “clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: his body also was like the beryl [a gem, possibly an emerald], and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude” (Daniel 10:5-6). This angel doesn’t sound much like today’s usual pictures of angels!

Acts 12:5-18 An angel rescues the apostle Peter from prison.

Revelation 14:14-20 Angels pour out God’s wrath and judgment on the earth.

The Collect prayer read on Michaelmas requests the help of angels for those on earth:

“O everlasting God, who hast ordained and constituted the services of Angels and men in a wonderful order: Mercifully grant that, as thy holy Angels always do thee service in heaven, so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Nowadays most Anglican churches use the more modern Book of Common Worship, but a traditional BCP service might still use this prayer and some of these Bible passages.

Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Hamstall Ridware, where Austen’s first cousin, Edward Cooper, served. Many English parish churches are named for St. Michael.
Photo © Brenda S. Cox, 2023

The church of Austen’s first cousin, Edward Cooper, in Hamstall Ridware, is named after St. Michael and All Angels. Their service this Sunday will be a celebration of Harvest (the British equivalent of America’s Thanksgiving) as well as a “patronal festival,” since it is the day of St. Michael, patron saint of the church. The clergyman, Revd. Jeremy Brading, told me, “The aim of these occasions [patronal festivals] is to celebrate the life of the local church on the occasion of its saint’s day. The celebration is for all that has gone previously, thanking God for his work through the local church. [Just] as important, is praying to God for his leadership and guidance for the future, that the local church might serve him faithfully.”

In Popular Culture

While Michaelmas is not much celebrated in today’s Anglican church, it was a great religious feast day in the Middle Ages, and traditions grew up around it. Michaelmas comes at the end of the harvest and the change of the season. A few old English traditions:

Eating goose and doing good: If you ate goose on Michaelmas, it was supposed to protect you from financial need for the next year. One writer says, “On Michaelmas, families spend the day doing good, dancing, singing, and at the end of the day, sharing a feast of freshly baked bread, roast goose stuffed with potatoes, veggies, and herbs.”

Picking blackberries: According to legend, when the Archangel Michael, with his flaming sword, cast the devil out of heaven, the devil landed in a thorny patch of blackberries. He was so angry that he spat on the blackberries and even urinated on them to make them unfit to eat. Thus blackberries picked after Michaelmas are considered inedible. Since Michaelmas originally fell in what is now mid-October, until the calendar changed (from Julian to Gregorian), that was pretty much the end of blackberry season.

A European Michaelmas daisy, aster amellus.
Photo by Björn S…, CC BY-SA 2.0

Michaelmas daisies: An old rhyme says,

‘The Michaelmas daisy, among dead weeds,

Blooms for St Michael’s valorous deeds.

And seems the last of flowers that stood,

Till the feast of St Simon and St Jude.’

Michaelmas daisies are asters, star-shaped flowers in lilac, blue, pink, or white. The peak of their bloom is around Michaelmas, though many are still blooming at the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude on Oct. 28.

Lawless Hour: An odd custom from Worcestershire: “In Kidderminster the Monday after Michaelmas had Lawless Hour between 12 pm and 1 pm, in between the old constable stepping down and the new one taking office. This led to an hour when people couldn’t be arrested, so groups would fight by throwing cabbage stalks and other fruit and vegetables at each other. The authorities mostly turned a blind eye, but by the mid 19th century this practice ended as it was considerate inappropriate.” Other local areas have their own Michaelmas traditions. 

We don’t know what Michaelmas traditions Jane Austen kept. But she did mention Michaelmas 15 times in her fiction, and now you know what it meant. Happy Michaelmas to you all!

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