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Archive for the ‘Emma’ Category

Visiting Great Bookham: Church of St Nicolas (and, Box Hill)

Posted in Anglican Church, Architecture, Churches of the Austen family, Emma, Jane Austen's World, Religion in Austen's England, tagged , , , , on January 22, 2024| 7 Comments »

by Brenda S. Cox

“I dread the idea of going to Bookham as much as you can do”—Jan. 9, 1799

“My scheme is to take Bookham in my way home for a few days . . . I have a most kind repetition of Mrs. Cooke’s two or three dozen invitations, with the offer of meeting me anywhere” –Nov. 3, 1813

We’ve been looking at some of Jane’s mother’s Leigh family. The Austens also corresponded regularly with the Cooke family in Great Bookham, who are often mentioned in Jane’s letters. Mrs. Cooke was Jane’s mother’s cousin. Her name was the same as Jane’s mother’s: Cassandra Leigh. She was the daughter of Jane’s uncle Theophilus Leigh, master of Balliol College at Oxford.

This cousin’s husband, Rev. Samuel Cooke, was Jane’s godfather. He was the vicar of St. Nicolas’, Great Bookham. He was also rector of Cottisford, Oxon, about 80 miles away, but he and his family lived in Great Bookham.

Godparents play an important role in Anglican families.They promise to pray for the child’s salvation, faith, and obedience, and, at the child’s baptism, they renounce the devil on the child’s behalf. A girl has one godfather and two godmothers.

Memorial plaque in St. Nicolas’ Church, Great Bookham, to Jane Austen’s godfather, Rev. Samuel Cooke, “formerly fellow of Baliol College Oxford, and for fifty-two years the resident and respected vicar of this parish. He died March 29th, 1820, in the eightieth year of his age. Guided by a spirit of piety and benevolence and by an inflexible sense of duty, which sought not the honour that cometh of man, he ran his long course in peace and content; and closed it in an humble trust on that blessed hope, ‘Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'”
The Incumbents (vicars, then rectors) of the Great Bookham church lists Samuel Cooke from 1769 to 1820.

Jane Austen visited the Cookes in Great Bookham, which is between Chawton and London, a number of times. We don’t know why she did not want to go there in 1799, but she visited from May 14 to June 2.

St. Nicolas’ Church, Great Bookham, externally still much as it was when Jane Austen visited there. See this image by JMW Turner.

Great Bookham in Austen’s Novels

Jane made good use of her visit. In 1801, she started writing The Watsons. Its setting in “Stanton” was apparently based on West Humble (now Westhumble), a town near Great Bookham. It is three miles from Dorking, which Austen calls “the town of D. in Surrey.” Betchworth Castle is nearby, so it may be the basis for Osborne Castle in the novel.

After probably visiting several more times, in the summer of 1814, Austen decided to visit the Cookes again. On June 14, she wrote,

“The only Letter to day is from Mrs. Cooke to me. They . . . want me to come to them according to my promise.—And after considering everything, I have resolved on going. . . . In addition to their standing claims on me, they admire Mansfield Park exceedingly. Mr. Cooke says ‘it is the most sensible Novel he ever read’—and the manner in which I treat the Clergy, delights them very much.—Altogether I must go–& I want you [Cassandra] to join me there . . .”

One commentator (Chapmen) says the Cookes may have had Evangelical leanings and appreciated Mansfield Park’s protext against lax views of the duties of the clergy. Evangelical or not, Edmund Bertram of Mansfield Park does present a very high view of the clergy. He says, for example:

“I cannot call that situation [of clergyman] nothing which has the charge of all that is of the first importance to mankind, individually or collectively considered, temporally and eternally, which has the guardianship of religion and morals, and consequently of the manners which result from their influence. No one here can call the office nothing. . . . it will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.”

Jane Austen apparently based Highbury in Emma on Great Bookham or the adjacent town of Leatherhead.

When Jane Austen visited in 1814, she was in the midst of writing Emma. She later told her nephew that Leatherhead, next to Great Bookham, was the model for Highbury. Box Hill, where Emma and her friends picnic, is nearby, and Great Bookham had an Old Crown Inn similar to the one in Highbury. (It was, however, demolished in 1930). There was also a Randalls Park, and other features similar to Highbury.

View from Box Hill, where Emma and her friends picnic in Emma. (Tony Grant points out that this wonderful view is not from the exact spot where they held their picnic. “Frank Churchill, when he gets up to to proclaim to the world, says that Dorking is to his left and Mickleham to his right. That can only mean the picnic took place on the Burford Spur of Box Hill.” You can find photos of other views in his posts linked below.)

Box Hill

Box Hill is still a beautiful spot for picnics, hiking, walking, and cycling. The current rector of Great Bookham, Alan Jenkins, kindly took us to visit there. It includes a cycling trail. In the 2012 Olympics, cyclists made nine laps on this trail as part of their route.

The Parsonage

The Cookes’ parsonage, where Jane Austen stayed, was a large one. (A maid working there was named Elizabeth Bennet, by the way.) They had at least six children, but only three survived to adulthood. Their daughter Mary, who apparently did not marry, was a good friend of Jane’s, mentioned in her letters. Their son Theophilus Leigh Cooke (1778-1846) became a clergyman, a fellow of Magdalen College at Oxford, and holder of three church livings. His brother George Leigh Cooke (1779-1853) combined religion and science. He was a fellow of Corpus Christi College and earned a bachelor of divinity (a graduate degree). He also became a professor of Natural Philosophy (science) at Oxford, a keeper of the archives, and published an edition of Newton’s Principia Mathematica.

Until 1869, Great Bookham had vicars, not rectors. The patron of the parish (a person who changed over the years), took part of the tithes and the rest went to the vicar, along with income from the glebe farmland belonging to the living. It is speculated that some of the excommunications in the Vestry Books were for non-payment of tithes (from 1800: Great Bookham at the Time of Jane Austen).

The parsonage was removed in 1961. For early pictures, see here. The parish now has a rector; the term no longer refers to tithes. His rectory is a modern building.

St. Nicolas’ Church, Great Bookham, History

Jane Austen must have worshiped in this church, where her godfather was the vicar, a number of times on her visits to Great Bookham.

When Austen visited, the church was full of box pews with walls around them. Some were three feet high, some were four feet high. The box pews were replaced by regular pews in 1885.

This wooden gate was added to side of the Great Bookham church in 1914. In Austen’s time, there was an external staircase here to an upper room, where Sunday school was held. Sunday schools, run by Christians of all denominations across England, educated the poor and enabled them to build better lives.
The church tower of St. Nicolas’ Great Bookham dates back to the 1100s. The clock in it was not there when Austen visited. Some years ago, the tower was in danger of falling down. The whole village got behind the project of fixing it, and raised even more than the large sum necessary to save the tower.
The chancel of the Great Bookham church was built in the 1300s, though when Jane Austen saw it, it did not have stained glass.

Other Literary Connections at Great Bookham

Great Bookham has a number of literary connections, some of which Jane Austen would have known about.

Cassandra Cooke, Jane Austen’s mother’s cousin, published her novel, Battleridge: An Historical Tale founded on facts, in 1799, by “a lady of quality.” Austen mentions it in her letters. Available on archive.org in two volumes.
Fanny Burney, one of Jane Austen’s favorite authors, lived here at the Hermitage with her husband, General Alexandre D’Arblay. Their son was baptized in the nearby Great Bookham church in 1795.

Fanny Burney wrote of the Cookes, “the father is worthy, the mother is good, so deserving, so liberal and so infinitely kind, that the world certainly does not abound with people to compare them with. The eldest son is a remarkably pleasing young man. The young seems sulky, as the sister is haughty.” She also wrote of Rev. Cooke, “Our vicar is a very worthy man and goodish—though by no means a marvellously rapid preacher.”

She also wrote to her father, Dr. Burney, “Mr. Cooke tells me he longs for nothing so much as a conversation with you on the subject of Parish Psalm singing—he complains that the Methodists run away with the regular congregation from their superiority in vocal devotion.” The Methodists, led by John and Charles Wesley, had been leading a revival in the church. They attracted people with lively hymns. Country churches were mostly singing psalms, often quite poorly, at this time, though hymns were beginning to be introduced into some churches.

Old and new: St. Nicolas’ pipe organ today. In 1800, the Great Bookham church only had a barrel organ that could play ten tunes. It accompanied their choir of Singers who sang from the West Gallery (balcony) of the church. So their music was probably better than that of many country churches at the time, which often had no musical instruments. This photo shows a memorial tomb/statue that Austen would have seen. The pulpit would have been higher, however, to be seen over the box pews. The blue bulletin board is modern, showing charities the church supports.

Playwright and politician Richard Sheridan (1751-1816), who wrote The Rivals and School for Scandal, owned several manors in the area around Great Bookham.

Later, teenaged C. S. Lewis lived in Great Bookham from 1914-1917, being educated by a private tutor, William T. Kirkpatrick.

St. Nicolas’ Church, Great Bookham, Today

St. Nicolas’ is a very active church, larger than the others we have “visited” so far. I was told the parish includes eleven to twelve thousand people. The electoral role of St. Nicolas’ lists about 250 members, and around 140 attend on Sundays. Three other ministers and five staff members assist the rector in serving the church. The church holds services every Sunday, Communion on Thursdays and Sundays, and several weekly prayer meetings. Members also meet in housegroups.

This board welcomes people to St. Nicolas’, Great Bookham, and advertises concerts and other community events held at the church.

The area also includes Baptist, Catholic, and United Reformed churches, and St. Nicolas’ cooperates with them on projects like Alpha Courses, designed to address people’s questions about Christian faith.

A few years ago, the church removed the Victorian pews and substituted chairs. This gives them the flexibility to hold various kinds of services and to host community events.

Religious education and daily worship are required to be offered in British government schools (student participation is optional). The rector, Alan Jenkins, provides some of this in local schools, briefly sharing a Bible story, prayer, and sometimes a song. School groups also come into the church for harvest or Easter services, with programs organized by the teachers.

Prayer stations around the church offer ideas for personal prayer.
An interesting aside for you: St. Nicolas’ Great Bookham has many lovely stained glass windows today, though there were none when Jane Austen visited. This one honors St. George, patron saint of England; St. Michael, who in the Bible defeats the great dragon, the devil; and St. Martin using his sword to cut his cloak in half in order to give half to a beggar in winter. These windows, with military images, are dedicated to Guy Cuthbert Dawnay, a soldier and Conservative politician. A large cross dedicated to Dawnay in the churchyard says he “was killed by a buffalo while on a hunting expedition in Masailand, E. Africa,” Feb. 28, 1889. Both have verses from Isaiah 60:19-20 about the Lord being his everlasting light.
On the day we visited the Great Bookham church, the central kneeling cushion at the altar commemorated Jane Austen’s connection with the church.

I hope you are enjoying learning about Jane Austen’s churches along with me. There is so much history at these old churches, as well as continuing community life and worship today.

All photos copyright Brenda S. Cox, 2024.

Brenda S. Cox is the author of Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. She also blogs at Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen.

Sources

1800: Great Bookham at the Time of Jane Austen, Fanny Burney, and R. B. Sheridan, published by the Parochial Council of St. Nicolas Great Bookham (booklet available at the church, funded by JASNA)

“The Original of Highbury,” Jane Austen Society Collected Reports II:60,

Church of St. Nicolas, official list entry

St. Nicolas, Great Bookham website and The History of the Building

Special thanks to Tony Grant for telling me that Box Hill was near Great Bookham, and to Rev. Alan Jenkins for taking us up to Box Hill!

Further Exploration

Jane Austen and Great Bookham, by Tony Grant

Box Hill in Jane Austen’s Emma, by Tony Grant (includes the geology, history, and literary connections of Box Hill)

Jane Austen’s Surrey, by Tony Grant (includes views Emma might have seen on her picnic)

Emma Woodhouse’s Surrey, by Tony Grant (includes views Emma might have seen on her picnic)

Other Churches Connected to Jane Austen

Steventon

Chawton

Hamstall Ridware and Austen’s cousin Edward Cooper

Adlestrop Church and the Leigh Family

Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel

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Jane Austen’s Relationship to Music

Posted in Emma, Jane Austen's music, Jane Austen's World, Music popular in Jane Austen's lifetime, tagged , on October 2, 2023| 9 Comments »

Jane Austen’s relationship with music, especially her private morning sessions on the piano forte before her family arose, was as creatively important to her as her writing. Digitized versions of the Jane Austen Music Books are stored on the Southampton UK website, where scholars, musicians, and Austen fans can peruse the music that the family liked and deemed important.

“The Austen Family Music Books is a collection of 18 albums of music containing around 600 pieces that belonged to the 19th century writer and her relations.”

Yet even with these troves of treasures, modern audiences are left to wonder:

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This musical score, in Jane Austen’s handwriting, is one of nearly 600 Austen family musical treasures available in an online archive. Jane Austen Museum/Public Domain

“So what kind of music did Jane Austen like to play?

“The line between classical and popular music was very soft in that period,” [Austen scholar Professor Joan] Ray noted. “She lived 1775 to 1817. So she has a lot of popular music but, for example, she had a popular song called ‘William.’ But when music scholars really looked at the 20th and 21st centuries, they discovered it was actually based on Haydn’s Piano Concerto No. 1.”

For as much as Austen loved and collected music, and created characters in her novels who also loved music, she was light on specifics in her novels.” – Discover The Music Jane Austen Loved | Colorado Public Radio

The Colorado Public Radio site provides sample music from movie soundtracks based on Austen’s novels. Interestingly, today’s film composers have only a vague idea of the music Austen specifically liked because of the very few references she made in writing: they had to imagine which music best represented the stories in the time they were written. The 1995 film of Pride and Prejudice used music from Mozart, Haydn, and Schubert: it is still celebrated as one of the best musical scores in an Austen film.

Three Emma film musical scores

The music scorers of following three Emma film adaptations use different approaches to music to tell Austen’s tales of the young, self-important heroine. If you have access to the streaming videos or own the DVDs, you may want to listen to the music and compare how their composers move these plots forward. The scores of each film are suited to the settings and vision of the film director.

  • Emma 1996 with Gwynneth Paltrow: Rachel Portman, the female composer for the musical score, won an academy award.

“One of Rachel’s [Portman’s} most well-known film scores was for Emma (1996). Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, this film is an adaptation of the Jane Austen novel of the same name. A light and playful romantic comedy, the film needed the right music to go with it. As FF2 Contributor Sophia Jin says of Rachel’s score for Emma, “Portman’s music feels joyful and lighthearted. It is warming and brings a sense of calm and peace to the picture.” Rachel won an Academy Award for Best Musical or Comedy Score for Emma, making her the first female composer to win an Academy Award in that category.” – Composer Rachel Portman is a Mastermind of Movie Music, International Swans

YouTube video of 3 musical themes from Emma 1996

  • Emma 2009, with Romola Garai took an earthier musical approach. In this film adaptation, Highbury was depicted as a relatively unsophisticated country town outside of London. Emma danced to rustic music that could easily be played by local musicians. The costumes also had a more earthy, homemade feel.  

Emma 2009: 4 musical themes from the film – YouTube video

  • Emma 2020 mixes folksongs that were popular during Austen’s era, with classical, and modern compositions.

The score fits the beautiful, elegant vision of director Autumn de Wilde, who had only directed music videos before tackling a full length feature film.

As with today’s musical tastes, in Austen’s day the line between classical and popular music was ever shifting. She copied the music of “La Marseillaise”, the French National Anthem, and contemporary tunes and folk music that were popular in her day. The Family Music Books show the family’s preferences, but few references were made in Austen’s letters to the music she practiced daily. In her writings, she mentioned only one classical composer – Johann Baptise Cramer.  The following YouTube video features his Piano Concerto No 5 in C Minor, Opus 48.

Cramer was credited with renaming Beethoven’s final piano concerto the “Emperor”. Beethoven began composing this Concerto in 1809, while Vienna was under invasion from Napoleon’s forces for the second time.

No documentation exists that Austen heard this concerto in person. After moving to Chawton, Austen visited her brother Henry frequently in London to work on the publication of her novels. Before this period she lived in Bath after her father retired from his living in Steventon. In both cities she regularly attended recitals and concerts, and likely had a more sophisticated exposure to contemporary music, especially to the works that arrived in major cities from the European composers. 

Screen Shot 2023-09-30 at 1.47.14 PM

Screen shot of Joan Ray’s talk with Carla Walker, host of the Music Room, CPR Classical, Public Radio

Listen to the full discussion at this CPR https://fb.watch/no42mQ7gfS/  Video

The clue to Austen’s love for music was in her daily practice at the piano forte. Her novels also provided clues. Any young lady in her novels who lived in the upper strata of society learned to play the piano forte and/or harp and could give concerts at home events. As for Austen, her morning practices were private. She did not provide entertainment for others in a public situation as some films have suggested. Instead, Austen took quiet comfort and inspiration from her morning musicals. They added as much to her creativity as her writings.

More background information and suggested readings:

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Jane Austen and Rom Coms: Emma (“The Slow Burn”)

Posted in Emma, Film adaptation, Jane Austen Films, Jane Austen in the modern world, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen TV adaptation, Jane Austen's enduring popularity, Jane Austen's World, Popular culture on April 10, 2023| 11 Comments »

In this series, we’re exploring Jane Austen’s novels and identifying the romantic themes used in each one – with the goal of proving that Jane Austen not only used romantic themes ingeniously but also played an important role in developing several key plot devices that are still used in modern filmmaking today.

Last month, I wrote about the “Enemies-to-Lovers” theme in Pride and Prejudice. This month, I’m delving into Emma and looking at the romantic themes it continues to inspire in modern romantic movies and shows.

Emma 1996

Enemies to Lovers in Emma

In “The Rom Com Explained” on TheTake.com, we read this humorous definition of the popular enemies-to-lovers trope that I discussed last month in regard to Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy:

“The two love interests probably start out at odds. They may come from different worlds, have competing goals, or simply get off on the wrong foot. But as the rom-com wisdom goes, there’s a very thin line between love and hate, and the story frames all this friction as kindling for sparks to fly.”

What about Emma and Mr. Knightley? In Emma, some have said that Mr. Knightley and Emma fit the rivals description as well because of their witty banter and playful digs, but their delayed love interest seems to be much more about their age gap, their family history, and their comfort level with one another that comes from being brother- and sister-in-law.

Emma 2009

Defining the Relationship

But if they aren’t rivals-to-lovers, what makes the romance between Emma and Mr. Knightley so irresistible? What techniques does Austen use to cleverly draw us into their world? What causes the slow burn that builds between them?

Are they boy/girl next door lovers? Possibly.

Friends-turned-lovers? Probably.

While Emma falls into both of these categories, if we want to narrow it down even further, the romance between Emma and Mr. Knightley best fits the “It Was Right In Front Of You All Along” theme. Their love story starts with a slow simmer, builds to a slow burn, and turn into a raging inferno.

The Slow Burn

In Emma, the relationship between Emma and Mr. Knightley sizzles because it’s so unexpected—at least for the two main characters. We, the readers, watch it slowly build (and hope that it will happen), but the characters themselves don’t recognize their own feelings for quite some time. It takes Emma the longest to realize, which adds to the charm of the story. With the Slow Burn love story, there are obstacles standing in the way (knowing one another too well, growing up together, not seeing each other “that” way, and other love interests). Most commonly, there’s a distraction that keeps one or the other from recognizing the chemistry that is building all along the way.

Emma 2020

The Red Herring Distraction

In a Slow Burn love story, there is usually at least one misleading love interest or storyline (or “red herring”) to keep readers off the trail. Jane Austen obviously sets the bar high for the red herring theme in Emma, but here’s a definition from “The Rom Com Explained” article:

“Rom-com leads often start out with a red herring love interest who seems very appealing but turns out to be all wrong. Meanwhile, as the protagonist spends time with someone they aren’t actively trying to impress, they can be their unfiltered self and get to know the other person in a real way.”

Emma, Pride and Prejudice, and Sense and Sensibility all have at least one red herring love interest. In each, there’s a man who seems charming and agreeable at first but turns out to be quite the opposite. In PP and SS, the red herrings turn out to be villains (yes, I’m looking at you Mr. Wickham and Mr. Willoughby), but in Emma, Frank Churchill, an immature and obnoxious man who think it’s funny to play with other people’s emotions, acts as the red herring. These red herring lovers keep audiences busy trying to figure them out so that they don’t notice the real love story brewing beneath the surface.

Emma 2020
Emma 2009

Reading Emma like a Detective

Unlike most modern romantic comedies, Jane Austen’s plot in Emma is anything but obvious. She outdoes herself with several misleading storylines. She keeps us so busy figuring out what’s happening between Emma and Frank Churchill, Emma or Harriet and Mr. Elton, Harriet and Frank Churchill, and even Harriet and Mr. Knightley that the majority of first-time readers never even notice the Frank and Jane Fairfax storyline until later in the novel.

In fact, Emma is so cleverly written that many scholars believe it reads more like a detective story than a romance. If you’d like to delve into this fascinating topic, click to read David H. Bell’s brilliant article, “Fun with Frank and Jane: Austen on Detective Fiction” in JASNA’s Persuasions.

Emma 1997 (Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill)

Hidden in Plain Sight

The other side of the coin with a red herring love story is that the false-love interest helps hide the true love interest—the one the heroine’s known for a long time and has never thought about “in that way.”

In the red herring plot line, this “real” love interest hides in plain sight. Sometimes, like in the situation with Mr. Darcy, he’s cloaked in some kind of mystery, misunderstanding, or perceived arrogance. Other times, as with Mr. Knightley, the hidden male lead is considered “off limits” because he’s a cousin, a step brother, a friend, or a co-worker. Most of the time, we (the audience) know he’s the real love interest rather quickly, but it takes most of the movie for the heroine to figure it out.

This is where Mr. Knightley really shines. He’s “the one,” hiding in plain sight. From the start, Austen casts him as the “big brother-type.” As a neighbor and friend, and the brother of Emma’s sister’s husband, Mr. Knightley is the perfect “off limits” hidden love interest. Emma has never looked at him in “that way.” It has never crossed her mind that he could see her as anything other than an annoying little sister.

The Aha Moment

“This long-developing chemistry leads to a moment of epiphany, where the character suddenly realizes the feelings that have been crystal-clear to the viewer all along” (“The Rom Com Explained”).

In this type of plot, usually one lead character realizes his/her feelings first, while the other takes longer to wake up to what’s going on between them. In Emma, Mr. Knightley sees Emma as much more than a neighbor and friend early on, but Emma is busy chasing other love stories and doesn’t see her own true love story blossoming right in front of her nose.

It’s only later in the film that Emma finally realizes that she loves Mr. Knightley. It’s always been him. This realization comes when she finds out that Harriet has feelings for Mr. Knightley (and that her feelings might possibly be returned). Startled by the powerful feelings of jealousy that come over her, she finally awakens to the deep love she’s felt for Mr. Knightley for quite some time.

Emma 1996

Modern rom-coms patterned after Emma:

Ever since Emma, there have been countless stories of friends-turned-lovers and lovers-hidden-in-plain-sight.

Modern films that fit this category are 13 Going on 30, Always Be My Maybe, Love and Basketball, Just Friends, Made of Honor, When Harry Met Sally, and Yesterday. In television, there are several couples in The Big Bang Theory, Monica and Chandler on Friends, and Jim and Pam from The Office. While these romances also fall into the friends-turned-lovers category, they fit the themes in Emma because most include a love interest that is hiding in plain sight but also “off limits” for one reason or another.

The most obvious modern film to follow in Emma’s footsteps is Clueless. It’s worth discussing because it is considered by many as one of the best modern remakes of a Jane Austen novel. Though some say it’s just a silly teen romance, it’s also incredibly clever in its own right. I truly believe it belongs in the “It was Right in Front of You All Along” category.

Clueless 1995
Clueless 1995

Finally, while Bridget Jones’s Diary is most often connected with Pride and Prejudice, there are also plenty of similarities between it and Emma. Mark Darcy has many attributes that closely align with Mr. Knightley. He’s an older, wiser family friend who seems (and probably is) far too good for Bridget but actually finds her quite adorable and captivating. It takes Bridget a long time to realize that Daniel Cleaver is a jerk and Mark is the better, more mature man.

If you love Emma and Mr. Knightley as much as I do, what do you think makes their romance so charming? At what point do you think Mr. Knightley realized his romantic feelings for Emma?

RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women Devotional, The Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Now Available: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

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New Winter Themed Jane Austen Box from Regency Marketplace

Posted in Christmas, Emma, Georgian Life, Jane Austen gifts, Janeites, Regency, Regency Christmas Traditions, Regency Life, Regency Period, Regency society, Regency style, Tea in the Regency era on October 15, 2022| 1 Comment »

As promised, I’m back with a reminder and announcement about Regency Marketplace’s brand-new seasonal Jane Austen Box! I’m delighted to share that the theme of this new box is “Christmas In Highbury”! If you missed my review of the lovely Autumn in Chawton Box I received, you can read about it and see photos HERE.

Christmas in Highbury

This Christmas, be transported to the little hamlet of Highbury in County Surrey. Here we find Emma and her friends and family preparing for a delightful country holiday, and you’re invited! Regency Christmastide for the aristocracy was often celebrated at the families’ country estates, and in Emma, we see her sister Isabella and Knightley’s brother John bring all their children to Hartfield for the occasion, enlivening the quiet household with their fun and noise. Mr. Woodhouse would have them stay forever!

The Perfect Gift

The “Christmas In Highbury” Jane Austen Box will be filled to the brim with a cozy and elegant medley of Emma and Regency-inspired Christmas gifts! A perfect gift box to send or receive this holiday season, it also makes a wonderful hostess gift. December 16th is Jane Austen’s birthday, too, so celebrate in style!

At Christmas every body invites their friends about them, and people think little of even the worst weather.

Jane Austen’s Emma

Place Your Order

The “Christmas In Highbury” Jane Austen Box will be available to reserve from Saturday, October 15th-Tuesday, November 15th, 2022. All boxes will ship out the first week of December! These boxes sell out quickly, so do not delay. Place an order for yourself or as a gift for a friend or relative today.

If you are longing to receive a box for Christmas, send this link to a friend or loved one as a big HINT: https://regencymarketplace.com/collections/jane-austen-box.

Order Here

If you want to take it up a notch, you can subscribe to the Quarterly Jane Austen Box and receive a box every 3 months, or purchase as a One-Time Gift option (non-recurring). Free Shipping in the USA! International Flat Rate Shipping available.

Coupon Code

Many thanks to Regency Marketplace for providing me with a discount code that I can share with all my friends and readers this Christmas ordering season. If you would like to receive a discount, you can use my special COUPON CODE for 10% off the Winter Box! *While Supplies Last.*

Previous Winter-Themed Jane Austen Box

RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, gives talks at libraries, teas, and book clubs, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling author of The Little Women Devotional, The Anne of Green Gables Devotional and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Coming soon: The Secret Garden Devotional! You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

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Rectors and Vicars in Jane Austen

Posted in 19th Century England, Emma, Jane Austen's World, Religion in Austen's England, tagged , , , on March 28, 2022| 15 Comments »

By Brenda S. Cox

Church livings play an important part in most of Jane Austen’s novels.

For example:

A fortunate chance had recommended him [Mr. Collins] to Lady Catherine de Bourgh when the living of Hunsford was vacant; and the respect which he felt for her high rank, and his veneration for her as his patroness, mingling with a very good opinion of himself, of his authority as a clergyman, and his right as a rector, made him altogether a mixture of pride and obsequiousness, self-importance and humility.—Pride and Prejudice chapter 15

Mr. Collins “venerates” his patron Lady Catherine, who gave him a living as a rector. (C.E. Brock)

A church living was a permanent job as rector or vicar of a parish, and the income, house, and farmland that went along with that.

In a country parish, most of the income came from tithes. People in the parish were legally required to pay the clergyman 10% of their income, which was usually from farming. It might be paid in crops, animals, and eggs, or in cash. During Austen’s time the system was changing over to cash, but many still paid in produce.

The clergyman also sometimes got income from glebe, the farmland that was part of the living. (Austen usually calls this land “meadow.”) And he might get a few pounds a year from the fees people paid for weddings, funerals, etc.

Some parishes in England traditionally had (and still have) a rector. Others traditionally had (and still have) a vicar. Mr. Collins was a rector, like most of Austen’s clergymen. Edward Ferrars is also offered a position as a rector:

“It is a rectory, but a small one”—Col. Brandon on the church living he is offering Edward Ferrars, Sense and Sensibility chapter 39

Colonel Brandon with Elinor; he gave a living to Edward Ferrars as a parish rector. (C.E. Brock)

The word rectory could mean either a job as a rector, or the rector’s home (also called a parsonage) that was provided with the living. Here it means his position. The word rector, by the way, is related to the words right and rectify. The rector was supposed to lead his parish in the right direction, and he had certain rights, which Mr. Collins is proud of.

Mr. Elton, though, is not a rector. He’s a vicar.

“He [Mr. Elton] had a comfortable home for her [Harriet], and Emma imagined a very sufficient income; for though the vicarage of Highbury was not large, he was known to have some independent property”—Emma chapter 4

Emma does not recognize Mr. Elton’s need for money, thinking he will marry Harriet. (C. E. Brock)

The word vicarage, like the word rectory, could refer to his position or his home; here it means his position. Vicar is related to vicarious, it means standing in the place of someone else.

A rector or a vicar had the same duties. They led church services, preached, officiated at ceremonies like baptisms, met with the vestry to deal with parish issues, helped the poor, and so forth. However, they did not receive the same level of pay.

There were two kinds of tithes. Parishes had their own agreements and definitions about what was included in each. But most commonly:

Greater tithes included everything that came from the ground, like wheat, oats, and barley.

Lesser tithes were usually fruit, eggs, and the young of animals.

If a clergyman was the rector of a parish, he got all the tithes.

If a clergyman was the vicar of a parish, he only got the lesser tithes, usually about a quarter of the total tithes. Someone else, probably the patron, was actually the rector and took the greater tithes.

Farmers brought their tithes of grain and animals to the parish clergyman. From A Clerical Alphabet, Richard Newton, Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

So, I think Austen is very intentional when she makes Mr. Elton a vicar. Emma knows that he doesn’t make a lot of money as vicar (“the vicarage . . . was not large”). Austen also gives us another clue:

“Mrs. Bates, the widow of a former vicar of Highbury, was a very old lady . . . She lived with her single daughter in a very small way . . . her [daughter’s] middle of life was devoted to the care of a failing mother, and the endeavour to make a small income go as far as possible.” —Emma chapter 3

Mrs. and Miss Bates, the widow and daughter of the former vicar of Highbury, live in poverty. (C.E. Brock)

Mrs. Bates’s husband, the former vicar, had not made enough money to leave much for his wife and daughter. So the income of this parish, at least for the vicar, is certainly low.

Emma, as usual, is clueless. She doesn’t realize that Mr. Elton, a vicar, is going to need to marry for money (though her readers would have known). So, the fun begins!

The third major type of clergyman was a curate. You can read more about curates in my post Nothing But a Country Curate. 

Brenda S. Cox blogs on Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen at brendascox.wordpress.com . She is working on a book entitled Fashionable Goodness: Christianity in Jane Austen’s England.

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