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Archive for the ‘Jane Austen’s World’ Category

Jane Austen’s Desk: A New Website

Posted in 19th Century England, Books Jane Austen Read, Jane Austen Resources, Jane Austen's World, Travel, tagged , , , on April 18, 2025| 5 Comments »

by Brenda S. Cox

“There must have been many precious hours of silence during which the pen was busy at the little mahogany writing-desk, (This mahogany desk, which has done good service to the public, is now in the possession of my sister, Miss Austen) while Fanny Price, or Emma Woodhouse, or Anne Elliott was growing into beauty and interest.”–A Memoir of Jane Austen by James Edward Austen-Leigh, her nephew

Welcome page to the website “Jane Austen’s Desk”

Wouldn’t you love to explore Jane Austen’s desk and room? Inger Brodey, Sarah Walton, and their amazing team at the Jane Austen Collaborative are recreating Jane’s desk and room for us to visit virtually.

While the website is still a beta version, I found lots of great information there. The plan is for it to become a “portal” linking to many Austen resources.

The site opens with a view of a room loosely based on the drawing room of Jane Austen’s House in Chawton

Jane Austen’s Desk

When you visit the room, you might want to start at the desk itself—Jane’s travel desk sits on a table. You’ll see manuscripts of several of the novels, which you can open and enjoy in early editions. Commentary tells more about the novel and the edition, with direct links to interesting sections like “Darcy’s list of desirable female accomplishments” and “Fanny asking about the slave trade.”

Nearby are newspapers, one of the most fun links. Several contemporary papers are included. You can hone in on a number of interesting articles, ranging from her brother Edward’s selling part of Stoneleigh Abbey, to reports of her brother Frank’s naval exploits, to the story of a swindler who pretended to be a rich person’s housekeeper!

Jane Austen’s travel desk (the real one is owned by the British Library). The manuscripts on the desk, the newspapers next to it, and the cross, take you to various resources.

The Bookshelf

Click on the bookshelves in Rev. Austen’s bureau-bookcase , and you’ll see some books mentioned in Austen’s writings. I expect this will be expanded later. But for now, you can read from several authors Austen said she was “in love with”—Thomas Clarkson (on abolition), Sir Charles Pasley (on the military), and James and Horatio Smith (verse parodies). We also have a book that Fanny Price was reading, George Macartney on the British Embassy to China.

For each, you will find an easy-to-read early version of the book; clear commentary; pictures; and links to relevant passages in the novels and letters. Two also link to related articles. A great start if you want to explore these books connected to Austen!

Catalogs on the ledge of the bookcase open up to records of the Alton Book Society that Austen enjoyed. You’ll find lists of members, rules, and lists of the books that the members, including Austen, traded around. This gives us another peek into Austen’s life and reading.

The Bookshelf takes you to some books Austen read.

Travels

A pianoforte stands next to the bookcase. It will eventually be connected to Austen’s music.

Above the pianoforte, click on the portrait of a ship on the sea. You go to a globe, where you can follow the travels of Austen’s family.

Jane Austen’s Desk, travel section. You can trace the positions of Frank and Charles Austen, Charles’s wife Fanny Palmer, and Jane Austen herself, year by year. You can also read stories about Frank and Charles’s experiences at sea.

Silhouettes on the wall connect you to Jane Austen’s family tree. If you click on the orange “i”, you get more information about each person. The plus buttons reveal more generations.

Many of these features include audio commentary as well as written commentary. For example, Lizzie Dunford of Jane Austen’s House tells us about the topaz crosses Charles brought back for his sisters.

There are great possibilities for future additions.

An Interview with Inger Brodey

Inger Brodey, who runs the Jane Austen Summer Program, tells us more about the project:

JAW: Inger, what gave you the idea for doing this website?

Inger: I was interested in Austen’s own creative process, and also in countering the myth that she was not well informed in the science and politics of her day. I found a kindred spirit in Sarah Walton, who was a grad student when we started. In the 1990s, both Sarah and I had been enchanted by JK Rowling’s website with clickable, magical elements on her desk to interact with. 

JAW: How is the website being funded?

Inger: We have received two rounds of funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and have applied for more. We intend to create a GoFundMe or Kickstarter campaign to seek private funding to support specific new developments, such as the learning games we have in mind. 

JAW: What are some parts you are excited about adding in the future?

Inger: The current setting is Spring 1813, while [Jane Austen] is writing Mansfield Park. Eventually we hope to add additional settings: for example, Summer or Winter 1814, when she was composing Emma; or Autumn, 1815, when Persuasion was in process. 

JAW: What are some parts that you and your team are finding challenging?

Inger: Well, it all takes much more time to create than one would imagine. We have a great team of programmers and designers, including the wonderful Harriet Wu who has drawn the site by hand. We constantly try to find the sweet spot where we can appeal to both scholars and the general public, and to all ages. Just as with our Jane Austen Summer Program, we also focus on providing tools for educators who wish to bring Jane Austen into the classroom. 

JAW: What other ideas do you have for expansion in the future?

Inger: As you can see on the site, there are many objects with potential to “animate” in the future. We are collaborating with Laura Klein to add music to the piano, Jennie Batchelor for sewing, and have plans for links to weather and agricultural information (via the scene out the window), tea culture (via the kettle), letter writing (via a folded letter), and many more. 

We applied for a grant to develop a state-of-the-art platform for navigating, reading, notating, and analyzing Austen’s novels, including the potential for crowd-sourced editions. 

As long as we can continue to find funding, I think this will be a lifelong project—there is so much potential to grow!

JAW: Thanks, Inger, we look forward to that!

The Desk, the Summer Program, and Online Talks

Gentle readers, I recommend you explore Jane Austen’s Desk. The website has not yet been configured for mobile phones, so you’ll need to access it on your computer or tablet.

When you’ve finished exploring, go back to the main page and take a survey, to possibly win a prize. The survey takes some thought and time, but you will get to give input for what you’d like to see in the future at this very helpful site.

The same Jane Austen Collaborative who created Jane Austen’s Desk also runs the Jane Austen Summer Program. This year it will be held June 19-22, 2025, in North Carolina. The theme is “Sensibility and Domesticity,” exploring “topics including medicine, birth, and domestic arts in Regency England and colonial North Carolina.” They will “focus on Austen’s first published novel, Sense and Sensibility—considering the birth of her career as a published writer as well as taking a transatlantic look at the world into which she was born.” I’m signed up, and would love to see some of you there!

Of course, even if you can’t get to North Carolina, you can always enjoy Jane Austen & Co.’s great offerings online. They are currently exploring Music in the Regency; I enjoyed a recent talk on Women & Musical Education in the Regency Era, by Kathryn Libin. Get on their mailing list for announcements of upcoming events.

They generously provide free access to recordings of their previous talks, on topics including “Austen and the Brontes,” “The Many Flavors of Jane Austen,” “Everyday Science in the Regency,” “Reading with Jane Austen,” “Asia and the Regency,” “Race and the Regency,” and “Staying Home with Jane Austen.” Something for everyone, it seems to me.

So much Jane Austen to enjoy!

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.

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Reading Miss Austen by Gill Hornby

Posted in Book review, Cassandra Austen (Jane's Sister), Inspired by Jane Austen, Jane Austen Early Life, Jane Austen Fan Fiction, Jane Austen's enduring popularity, Jane Austen's family, Jane Austen's letters, Jane Austen's life, Jane Austen's World, MIss Austen PBS, tagged , , , , on March 24, 2025| 13 Comments »

The new BBC miniseries “Miss Austen”, based on Gill Hornby’s novel of the same name, is currently the focus of much attention worldwide. The series aired in the UK in February and comes to PBS this May. Some of you have maybe already seen the show, depending on where you live, but for those who are waiting for it to air, I am here to say this:

Read the book while you wait!

You won’t regret it. In anticipation of the show, I decided to read Miss Austen by Gill Hornby, fully expecting to dislike it (I’m very picky). But I’m here to report that I loved it! I actually finished it in two days because I could not put it down (which is not easy as a writer with a busy household of teens). The story flows at a slower pace, but Hornby’s style–and the whole world she created–pulled me in and kept me engaged from start to finish.

In the book, an older Cassandra searches for a packet of Jane’s letters that she does not want anyone to ever see or read. As she finds and reads the various letters, we travel back through her memories to visit her younger self. I found myself completely immersed in the real (and imagined) details about Cassandra’s relationship with Tom Fowle (a former pupil of Reverend Austen), the Fowle family, and the Lloyd family.

Overall, the book does tell a sad story because it deals with a fictional retelling of Cassandra’s real-life story, her heartbreaks, her deep affection for her beloved family (many of whom she outlived), the Austens’ move to Bath, Reverend Austen’s death, the Austen women and their search for stability after his death, and Cassandra’s devotion and loyalty to Jane. However, there are many endearing and uplifting themes as well. The writing itself is exquisite.

While Hornby of course employs creative license as a novelist, I was also impressed by the copious amounts of research she must have done to write this book. Though fictional, it acts as a poignant biography of Jane’s sister and best friend. I felt as though I understood Cassandra, and had a deeper understanding of her protectiveness over Jane, by the end of the book. Hornby’s perspective on Jane is intriguing, and her (entirely fictional) character Henry Hobday adds depth to Cassandra’s story.

For those of you that read Miss Austen when it released in 2020, you might enjoy a reread. For those who have never read it, it’s a wonderful way to prepare yourself for the show. And even if you’ve already watched the show, you might like to read it and compare the two.

Book Description

England, 1840. Two decades after the death of her beloved sister, Jane, Cassandra Austen returns to the village of Kintbury and the home of her family friends, the Fowles. In a dusty corner of the vicarage, there is a cache of Jane’s letters that Cassandra is desperate to find. Dodging her hostess and a meddlesome housemaid, Cassandra eventually hunts down the letters and confronts the secrets they hold, secrets not only about Jane but about Cassandra herself. Will Cassandra bare the most private details of her life to the world, or commit her sister’s legacy to the flames?

Moving back and forth between the vicarage and Cassandra’s vibrant memories of her years with Jane, interwoven with Jane’s brilliantly reimagined lost letters, Miss Austen is the untold story of the most important person in Jane’s life. With extraordinary empathy, emotional complexity, and wit, Gill Hornby finally gives Cassandra her due, bringing to life a woman as captivating as any Austen heroine.

(The collection of cover art included in this article is from various editions sold worldwide.)

About the Author

Gill Hornby is the author of Miss Austen, The Hive, and All Together Now, as well as The Story of Jane Austen, a biography of Austen for young readers. Her most recent novel is Godermsham Park, also available from Pegasus Books. She lives in Kintbury, England, with her husband and their four children.

About the Show

Miss Austen takes an historic literary mystery – the notorious burning of Jane Austen’s letters by her sister Cassandra – and reimagines it as a fascinating, witty, and heart-breaking story of sisterly love, while creating in Cassandra a character as captivating as any Austen heroine.

Based on Gill Hornby’s best-selling novel, this period drama brings a fresh and intimate perspective to the Austen sisters’ lives — their joys, heartaches, and the passions that shaped Jane’s iconic novels.

Keeley Hawes (The Durrells in Corfu, Bodyguard, Line of Duty) as the loyal and loving Cassandra leads an ensemble cast that includes Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey) as family friend Isabella Fowle, Patsy Ferran (Living) as young Jane Austen, and Synnøve Karlsen (Bodies) as young Cassy.

PBS Episode Schedule

Premieres: Sunday, May 4, 2025, at 9/8c
Episode 2: Sunday, May 11, 9/8c
Episode 3: Sunday, May 18, 9/8c
Episode 4: Sunday, May 18, 10/9c

Miss Austen, Dutiful Daughter and Sister

I cannot wait to watch the show soon, and I hope to come back to discuss it later this year, but in the meantime, I enjoyed the book immensely. I usually only review nonfiction books here, but I felt that a novel of such high caliber warranted a thorough review, especially in light of the upcoming show. Here’s to celebrating Jane Austen’s 250th year and to enjoying her world more fully!

RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, speaks at libraries, teas, and conferences, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling, award-winning author of The Anne of Green Gables Devotional, The Little Women Devotional, The Secret Garden Devotional, and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. A true kindred spirit at heart, Rachel loves books, bonnets, and ballgowns. Visit her online at www.RachelDodge.com.

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

Posted in Anglican Church, Architecture, Churches of the Austen family, Jane Austen's World, Religion in Austen's England, tagged , , on March 17, 2025| 8 Comments »

By Brenda S. Cox

“Edward & I settled that you went to St. Paul’s Covent Garden, on Sunday.”—Jane Austen, letter to Cassandra from Godmersham Park, Oct. 26, 1813

Covent Garden

We’ve been visiting London churches mentioned in Austen’s novels. Now let’s go to one mentioned in her letters. In the fall of 1813, Jane was staying with her brother Edward and his family at Godmersham Park. Cassandra was visiting their brother Henry at 10 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London. He lived in a flat above his bank. (For locations Henry lived in London, see Jane Austen’s Visits to London.) Covent Garden was known for its fruit and vegetable market, as well as, unfortunately, its prostitutes.

Jane Austen’s London offered two official theatres, at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. Both were in the church parish served by St. Paul’s Covent Garden, and Austen saw plays at both. She was planning to see a play at the Covent Garden theatre when she visited Henry a month earlier:

“Fanny and the two little girls are gone to take places for to-night at Covent Garden; “Clandestine Marriage” and “Midas.” The latter will be a fine show for L. and M.” (Lizzie and Marianne)—Sept. 15, 1813 (Fanny was the eldest daughter of Jane’s brother Edward Austen Knight; her mother had died five years earlier. Lizzie and Marianne were Fanny’s younger sisters. Edward was with them but staying at a nearby hotel.)

Jane and Edward assumed Cassandra would go to church at St. Paul’s Covent Garden, since it was Henry’s parish church. Jane probably attended that church herself when any of her visits to Henrietta Street lasted over a Sunday. She and her family regularly attended church on Sundays, wherever they were.

The old Covent Garden Theatre building is at the center of the modern Royal Opera House.

The Actors’ Church

The Covent Garden area today offers more than twenty theatres. St. Paul’s, called “The Actors’ Church,” hosts concerts and plays in the church and in its walled garden. They have an in-house professional theatre company, Iris Theatre. The church’s summer schedule for this year includes Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, along with several Shakespeare productions and children’s shows. To accommodate such events, the church replaced deteriorating Victorian pews with custom-made movable and stackable pews.

Signs announce upcoming shows and services at St. Paul’s Covent Garden, the Actors’ Church.

The inside of the church commemorates famous entertainers wherever you look. Hundreds of plaques adorn the walls of the church, the backs of the pews, and the garden benches and walls.

Wall plaques at St. Paul’s Covent Garden. Vivien Leigh’s is in the top right center.

Some plaques are memorials to the church’s leaders and parishioners, as you would see in other English churches. But most remind visitors of famous people such as Vivien Leigh (star of Gone with the Wind), Boris Karloff (who played Frankenstein’s monster), Thomas Arne (who wrote “Rule, Britannia” around 1740), Sir Charles Chaplin (Charlie Chaplin), and others.

A variety of memorials line the walls of St. Paul’s Covent Garden. The central memorial is to John Bellamy Plowman, his son who died in 1811 at age 17, his son’s wife, and six children who died in infancy. The monument above it is from 1879. The grey and white plaque to the left is to Thomas Arne, “musician and parishioner,” 1710-1778, who wrote the anthem “Rule Britannia.” To the right are three twentieth century plaques, honoring playwright Sir Terence Rattigan; author, composer, and actor Sir Noel Coward; and actor Sir Charles Chaplin. A line of more modern brown plaques is below.

Besides actors and actresses, plaques commemorate dancers, singers, directors, theatre managers, patrons, choreographers, drama teachers, playwrights, and even a “critic, journalist, wit.” One woman is listed as “Actress, Producer, Supernova.” The church charges hefty fees to install these plaques (around £3000 for a plaque on the wall). These fees have kept the church solvent.

Memorials on the backs of pews at St. Paul’s Covent Garden

History

The church was designed by Inigo Jones and consecrated to St. Paul in 1638.

Covent Garden churchyard statue of St. Paul seeing a vision on the road to Damascus.

Jones designed it with a great East Door into the main piazza of Covent Garden. However, that would have put the altar at the west end of the church, which went against Christian tradition. At the last moment, the Bishop of London decreed that the altar had to be in the east end of the church, so the East Door doesn’t open. Entry is through the churchyard, from the sides of the building.

Front of St. Paul’s Covent Garden, with the false door in the center.

Various famous people are buried in the churchyard, including the painter JMW Turner and the first victim of the Great Plague of London, who died in 1665. In the 1850s, Parliament stopped all burials in central London churches. At that time, the headstones were removed and the gardens laid out as they are today.

Lovely garden in the churchyard of St. Paul’s Covent Garden

A fire destroyed much of the church in 1795, but it was rebuilt so that today it is much as Austen would have seen it.

Entrance from the churchyard of St. Paul’s Covent Garden.

Rectors

When Jane Austen was there, Edward Embry was the rector, from 1810-1817. She might have heard him preach, but she does not mention him in her letters. His portrait is in the National Gallery.

The rector who kindly showed us around when we visited was Rev. Simon Grigg, who has been rector since 2006. His bio says “When not in church you will usually find him in a bar, a theatre or the gym.” The assistant rector, Rev. Richard Syms, is a professional actor and theatre manager as well as a priest.

The pulpit of St. Paul’s Covent Garden was designed by Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721) or his students.

Worship

The church offers communion services on Sundays and Wednesdays, and brief Morning Prayer services Tuesday through Friday. Their choir sings Choral Evensong once a month. Rev. Grigg told us that attendance on Sundays is about 50 people, plus those who attend online. The church seats 200.

Chancel of St. Paul’s Covent Garden. Note the camera on the right.

They have larger services for Easter and for midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Of course they also host weddings, baptisms, and funerals. According to their website, “St Paul’s is well known because of its memorial services for members of the theatrical and entertainment community, but we also offer them for the local community.”

Welcome sign to St. Paul’s Covent Garden; text is below.

Inclusion

The church seeks to be inclusive, according to their website and this entry sign:

“We extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, widowed, straight, gay, confused, well-heeled or down at heel. We especially welcome wailing babies and excited toddlers.

We welcome you whether you can sing like Pavarotti or just growl quietly to yourself. You’re welcome here if you’re ‘just browsing’, just woken up or just got out of prison. We don’t care if you’re more Christian than the Archbishop of Canterbury or haven’t been to church since Christmas ten years ago.

We extend a special welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who are growing up too fast. We welcome keep-fit mums, football dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latte-sippers, vegetarians, junk-food eaters.

We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted. We welcome you if you are having problems, are down in the dumps, or don’t like ‘organized religion’.

We offer a welcome to those who think the earth is flat, work too hard, don’t work, can’t spell or are here because granny is visiting and wanted to come to church.

We welcome those who are inked, pierced, both or neither. We offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down their throats as kids, or got lost in Covent Garden and wound up here by mistake.

We welcome pilgrims, tourists, seekers, doubters, . . . and you!”

No doubt Jane Austen and her family would have felt welcome in the church, especially with their love of the theatre.

All photos in this post ©Brenda S. Cox, 2025

More Information about St. Paul’s Covent Garden

Physical dedications 

Self-Guided Tour, explaining parts of the church and giving prayers 

Visitor Information and schedule of events 

History of the church 

Churches Mentioned by Name in Jane Austen’s Novels

Garrison Chapel

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

St. George’s, Hanover Square

London Churches in Austen’s Novels

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

 

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.

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A Jane Austen Year: New Book & Podcast Review

Posted in 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen, Book review, Chawton Cottage, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen's enduring popularity, Jane Austen's life, Jane Austen's World, tagged , , , , on March 9, 2025| 2 Comments »

One of the releases I’ve most anticipated this year is the new book A Jane Austen Year: Celebrating 250 years of Jane Austen by Jane Austen’s House and the brilliant new A Jane Austen Year Podcast of the same name.

After spending so much time researching and writing my seasonal, month-by-month “A Year in Jane Austen’s World” blog series last year, I knew it was right down my alley. I am happy to report that the information included in this book covers a variety of intriguing topics, recipes, illustrations, and specially commissioned photos. It feels like taking a tour of Jane Austen’s House Museum each month of the year. It is well worth the read!

“Arranged chronologically across the calendar year, this uniquely intimate insight into Jane Austen’s world offers reproductions of her letters, the objects she held dear, the story of how her first novel Pride and Prejudice came to be published and the routines of her everyday life at this idyllic Hampshire cottage. Experience life as Austen did herself, as both the notable writer she was, and also the daughter, sister and friend she remained to those closest to her.”

Published by Pitkin, A Jane Austen Year releases March 11, 2025. I was grateful to receive a digital copy in order to review it before its release.

ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

My Review

First of all, this book makes a beautiful addition to your shelves or coffee table if you’re a book collector or if you like to display your Jane Austen books as part of your home, office, or library decor. I also appreciate that it was put together by the people who work at Jane Austen’s House Museum. Many of the photos and insights come directly from Chawton Cottage, where Jane Austen spent the latter years of her life and writing career, and its collections.

As I read through each month’s offerings in A Jane Austen Year, I enjoyed seeing photographs of Jane Austen’s House Museum during every season and reading through the excerpts from Jane Austen’s letters and novels that pertained to that particular month. Of special note are the recipes for meals, vinegars, and salves, sheet music Jane might have played or heard, costume designs for theater productions of the time, gardening notes and illustrations, photos from the collections held at JAHM, as well as snippets from the film adaptations.

Overall, this is a wonderful book to peruse. I look forward to spending a lot more time with it this year. The photographs are stunning and I can’t wait to delve in deeper with the information provided. Now that I’ve read through the entire book, I plan to go through it month by month for the remainder of the year.

Book Excerpt

“This book is written from Jane Austen’s House in Chawton – one of the most important places in the history of English literature and the development of the novel.

“Here, in this inspiring Hampshire cottage, Jane Austen lived for the last eight years of her life. Here, her genius flourished and she wrote, revised and had published all six of her globally beloved novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

“Today, Jane Austen’s House is a cherished museum with an unparalleled collection of Austen treasures, including items of furniture, paintings and household objects. Visitors can discover Jane’s personal letters and first editions of her novels, items of jewellery, portraits of her friends and family, and the tiny writing table at which she wrote.

“This book brings together some of the precious fragments of Jane Austen’s life story, along with world events that shaped her life and understanding, extracts from her novels and letters, and a range of extraordinary objects held here in the museum’s collection. Dip into it as you will, or go through month by month and enjoy a full year of Jane Austen: her life and writings, people and objects she knew and, of course, her beautiful, inspiring home.”

Book Description

This beautifully illustrated book charts the life of one of the world’s most beloved authors through the letters, objects, and manuscripts that shaped her life.

Published in partnership with the curators of Jane Austen’s House, the enchanting Hampshire cottage where Jane Austen’s genius flourished that now attracts thousands of visitors every year.

Arranged over the course of a calendar year, from snowy scenes in January to festive recipes in December, specially commissioned photography of Austen’s home and possessions are brought together with extracts from her books, reproductions of her letters, and stories of her life throughout the seasons. Highlights include the first time Austen read a published copy of Pride and Prejudice to an enraptured audience in her drawing room, affectionate letters to her sister Cassandra reproduced in full and an exquisite miniature portrait of Tom Lefroy, the man she nearly married.

Read this book for a unique and intimate insight into Austen’s world. Dip into it as you will, or visit each month, and enjoy a full year of Austen—her life, works and letters, people and objects she knew, and of course her idyllic, inspiring home.

A Jane Austen Year Podcast

Jane Austen’s House has also released a delightful new podcast to accompany the book. There is a new installment each month! You can listen in HERE.

The A Jane Austen Year podcast is a seasonal journey through Jane Austen’s novels, the story of her life and the world she lived in. It is created and recorded at Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, Hampshire – “the most treasured Austen site in the world.”

For those who haven’t listened yet, I must say that I find this podcast absolutely delightful! It is chock-full of wonderful information about Jane Austen, her writing, her family, her world, and Chawton Cottage. The music, narration, and production make this podcast one of the most soothing and gentle podcasts I’ve heard in a long time. I can’t wait for the next installment!

Podcast Details

A Jane Austen Year transports you to Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, the idyllic Hampshire cottage where Jane Austen lived and wrote her globally beloved novels – now a beloved museum.

Each month, join us on a seasonal journey through Jane Austen’s novels, the story of her life and the world she lived in. Discover scenes, letters, recipes, and objects from the museum collection, bound together with readings and sounds recorded in the House itself.

Each episode is recorded by the people who work at Jane Austen’s House, caring for this special place and protecting it for future generations. January, for example, is voiced by: Lizzie Dunford, Jenny Durrant, Jessica Halmshaw, Amelia Harvell,Sophie Reynolds, Rebecca Wood – with a guest appearance by Dominic Gerrard.

I highly recommend both the book and the podcast. If I could travel to Chawton again this summer, that would be the pinnacle of my Jane Austen year, but these new productions are an absolute gift from Jane Austen’s House Museum. I’m sure it’s been a massive undertaking, and I am grateful!

RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, speaks at libraries, teas, and conferences, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling and award-winning author of The Anne of Green Gables Devotional, The Little Women Devotional, The Secret Garden Devotional, and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. A true kindred spirit at heart, Rachel loves books, bonnets, and ballgowns. Visit her online at www.RachelDodge.com.

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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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