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Jane Austen’s Social Life: Steventon Friends and Neighbors (Part 2)

Posted in Jane Austen Early Life, Jane Austen's family, Jane Austen's Influences, Jane Austen's life, Jane Austen's World, Steventon on September 14, 2026| 1 Comment »

Austen’s first inner circle was found with her family at home, at the Rectory in Steventon (see previous article). But the families who lived nearby in her immediate neighborhood and beyond, formed another kind of community—especially as she grew older. She was surrounded by friendships that became a meaningful part of her life, well into adulthood.

We know Austen dearly loved to “collect” people together in her novels and arrange them in a specific way within a specific location. She called it the “delight” of her life. In a letter to Anna Austen, she said, “Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on, and I hope you will do a great deal more, and make full use of them while they are so very favourably arranged. (Austen, Letter to Anna Austen, 9 Sept. 1814)

It’s intriguing to consider the “three or four families” Austen enjoyed mingling with in her everyday life. Let’s find out a bit more about the people in Austen’s personal “village,” and consider how they might have inspired her writing.

Thomas Rowlandson drawing of an afternoon tea visit
Afternoon tea, Thomas Rowlandson. Image in the public domain.

Steventon Neighbors

During the Steventon years, the Austens enjoyed a wide social circle in the Steventon and Deane parishes and the surrounding areas. Jane’s world extended well beyond the rectory as she grew older, and it included family friends, neighbors, local clergy and gentry, and several lifelong companions.

These main families included in this article are the Digweed family, the Harwood family, the Lefroy family, the Lloyd family, the Bigg-Wither family, and the Fowle family. There were many others, but these are some of the families that played a role in the Austen family life and home as Jane was growing up. Many of the children of these families remained friends of hers well into adulthood.

Steventon Rectory. Image Wikimedia Commons
Steventon Rectory. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

Digweed Family (Steventon Manor)

The Digweeds were the Austens’ nearest genteel neighbours during Jane’s Steventon years. They rented Steventon Manor, directly across the lane from the rectory and church, from Thomas Knight and later from his heir, Jane’s brother Edward Austen Knight. The family had five sons, John, Harry, James, William, and Francis, who were close in age to several of the Austen children (Le Faye; St Nicholas Church, Steventon).

Their proximity created a long-lasting friendship between the two families. The Austen and Digweed young people shared the joys and obligations of country life, including dinners, balls, card parties, riding, parish concerns, and visits. The Digweeds appear repeatedly in Jane’s correspondence over the years as evidence of the family ties (Le Faye; “Jane Austen’s Friends: The Digweeds”). James Digweed later became the curate at Steventon in 1798, extending the connection between the two families even further (“Portrait Miniatures”; Le Faye).

Three portrait miniatures of the Digweed Family now feature at Jane Austen’s House Museum of Francis William Digweed, James Digweed, and Mary-Susannah Digweed, nee Lyford. They were done in 1811 and are described thus:

Three oval portrait miniatures, painted in watercolour, gouache and bodycolour on ivory. They depict Francis William Digweed, James Digweed, and his wife, Mary-Susannah Lyford. The portraits are mounted in rectangular frames, wood painted black with a decorative hanging device. (“Portrait Miniatures”)

“Portrait Miniatures,” Jane Austen’s House.

Harwood Family (Deane House)

Deane House, only a short distance from Steventon, was home to the Harwoods, a well-established landed family whose household formed part of the Austens’ wider local world. Jane knew the family from childhood, and John Harwood appears in her letters in connection with visits, balls, and other gatherings—evidence of the easy social life that existed between the Rectory and Deane House (“John Harwood”).

The Harwoods also illustrate how closely the neighboring families were interconnected. Charles Harwood married Eliza Terry (another neighbor), while Eliza’s sister Jane married Harry Digweed. Such marriages helped bind together the households Jane knew at Deane, Steventon, and Ashe. These intertwined family networks created exactly the kind of “three or four families in a country village” that Austen later recommended to Anna. (Le Faye)

Deane House

Lefroy Family (Ashe Rectory)

Ashe Rectory, only about two miles from Steventon, was home to the Reverend Isaac Peter George Lefroy, his wife Anne, and their family. Anne Lefroy was a poet, hostess, philanthropist, and a cherished friend and formative influence on Jane; they first met when Jane was eleven (Jane Austen’s House, “Room 2”).

The two households met often within the social world of Ashe, which included the Austens, Bigg-Withers, Digweeds, Terrys, and others (Jenkins; Le Faye). During Tom Lefroy’s visit to his aunt and uncle at Ashe in the winter of 1795–96, Jane and Tom apparently danced and flirted (Austen, Letters).

Sadly, Anne Lefroy’s accidental death from a tragic fall from her horse on 16 December 1804 (Jane’s twenty-ninth birthday) was a painful loss to Jane and the Austen family. Jane later commemorated her life in the poem, “To the Memory of Mrs. Lefroy” (“Obituary for Mrs Anne Lefroy”).

Ashe Rectory. Illustration by Ellen Hill. Jane Austen’s House.

Lloyd Family (Deane Parsonage and Ibthorpe)

After the death of the Reverend Noyes Lloyd in 1789, his widow and their daughters, Mary and Martha, rented Deane Parsonage from George Austen. The Lloyds quickly became part of the Austens’ closest circle; Mary later married Jane’s eldest brother, James, while Martha became one of Jane and Cassandra’s most enduring companions (Jane Austen’s House, “Room 3”; “Martha Lloyd”).

Jane’s own description of Martha as a “friend and sister under every circumstance” conveys the depth of that bond (Austen, Letters; Jane Austen’s House, “Room 3”). After Mrs. Lloyd’s death in 1805, Martha joined the Austen women in Bath. She moved with them to Southampton and then to Chawton Cottage in 1809 (Jane Austen’s House, “A Timeline”). Much later, in 1828, she married Jane’s brother Frank, which provided a wonderful continuation of their lifelong friendship (Jane Austen’s House, “Room 3”; “A Timeline”).

Ibthorpe, Photo by Rachel Dodge.

Bigg-Wither Family (Manydown Park)

The Bigg-Withers family of Manydown Park belonged to the landed-gentry circle that welcomed Jane and Cassandra as frequent visitors. Jane was particularly close to the Bigg sisters, Alethea and Elizabeth, and her letters indicate a friendship that included shared reading, plenty of witty commentary, and the delightful intimacies of a long acquaintance with dear friends (Kaplan; Honan).

Manydown is most remembered because, while visiting in December 1802, Jane accepted an offer of marriage from the family’s son and heir, Harris Bigg-Wither, then withdrew her acceptance the following day (Honan; Duckworth). Though a marriage to Harris would have provided material security, Jane could not go through with it (Honan; Jane Austen’s House, “A Timeline”).

18th century engraving of Manydown Park
18th century engraving of Manydown Park. Wikipedia Commons.

Fowle Family (Kintbury)

The Fowle family’s connection to the Austens began in the Steventon rectory school. Tom Fowle, later Cassandra Austen’s fiancé, was a pupil of George Austen, as was his brother Fulwar; the school placed the Fowle family within the Austens’ social circle long before Cassandra’s engagement to Tom (Harris; Hussain, “The Boys”).

Cassandra and Tom’s marriage was delayed because he lacked a living sufficient to support a household (Harris; Jane Austen’s House, “A Timeline”). In 1796, Tom travelled to the Caribbean as private chaplain, but he died of yellow fever at sea in February 1797 before the couple could marry (Harris; Jane Austen’s House, “A Timeline”). Tom’s death shaped Cassandra’s life in many ways, and the Fowles remained connected to the Austens for years (Harris; Jane Austen’s House, “Jane Austen’s Family”). The Fowle family lived at the vicarage in Kintbury, West Berkshire, a setting later reimagined in Gill Hornby’s novel Miss Austen.

Kintbury Vicarage, British Listed Buildings.

More to Learn

This is only a brief snapshot of a handful of the families Austen socialized with when she lived at Steventon. One could spend endless amounts of time learning more about these wonderful families and their connection to the Austens. I highly recommend reading: Deborah Kaplan’s article, “Jane Austen and the Bigg Sisters,” as well as the other Persuasions articles listed in the Works Cited below.

Though Austen’s novels were not autobiographical, it’s intriguing to consider how the families she knew and loved might have influenced the way Austen arranged her characters. It’s clear from her own life that Austen enjoyed a bustling household and a busy social life, with plenty of friends and neighbors in the surrounding area.

Rachel Dodge teaches writing classes, speaks at libraries, teas, and conferences, and writes for Jane Austen’s World. She is the bestselling, award-winning author of The Anne of Green Gables Devotional, Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen, the Praying with Jane Audiobook with actress Amanda Root, and other classics-based devotional books. Her newest release, A Christmas Carol Devotional, is now available! A true kindred spirit at heart, Rachel loves books, bonnets, and ballgowns. Visit her online at www.RachelDodge.com.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Letters of Jane Austen. Various eds., including Brabourne and later selections; see especially letters dated 14–15 Jan. 1796 and those referring to the Bigg and Lloyd families.

Duckworth, Alistair M. “Jane Austen’s Accommodations.” Persuasions, no. 7, Jane Austen Society of North America.

Harris, Jocelyn. “Jane Austen’s Real and Imagined Characters.” Persuasions On-Line, vol. 35, no. 1, 2014, Jane Austen Society of North America, jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol35no1/harris.html.

Honan, Park. “Jane Austen’s Manydown Proposal.” Persuasions, no. 10, 1988, Jane Austen Society of North America, jasna.org/persuasions/printed/number10/honan.htm.

Hussain, Hafsa. “The Boys at Steventon: Mr. Austen’s Students, 1773–1796.” Persuasions On-Line, vol. 44, no. 1, 2023, Jane Austen Society of North America, jasna.org/assets/Persuasions-On-Line/Vol44-No1/Hussain-2/Hussain_The-Boys-at-Steventon-Mr-Austens-Students.pdf.

Jane Austen’s House. “A Timeline of Jane Austen’s Life and Works.” 23 Oct. 2023, janeaustens.house/jane-austen/timeline/.

Jane Austen’s House. “Jane Austen’s Family.” 7 Jan. 2026, janeaustens.house/jane-austen/family/.

Jane Austen’s House. “Letter from Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen, 14–15 January 1796.” 27 Mar. 2025, janeaustens.house/object/letter-from-jane-austen-to-cassandra-austen-14-15-january-1796/.

Jane Austen’s House. “Obituary for Mrs Anne Lefroy, 21 December 1804.” 27 Mar. 2025, janeaustens.house/object/obituary-for-mrs-anne-lefroy-21-december-1804/.

Jane Austen’s House. “Portrait Miniatures of the Digweed Family.” 26 June 2024, janeaustens.house/object/digweed-family-portrait-miniatures/.

Jane Austen’s House. “Room 2: Mrs Leigh-Perrot, Madam Lefroy, Anne Sharp.” 26 Feb. 2025, janeaustens.house/online-exhibition/obstinate-headstrong-girls/obstinate-headstrong-girls-room-2/.

Jane Austen’s House. “Room 3: Martha Lloyd, Miss Austen and Mrs Austen.” 22 Aug. 2025, janeaustens.house/online-exhibition/obstinate-headstrong-girls/obstinate-headstrong-girls-room-3/.

Jenkins, Jennifer. “The Letters of Mrs Lefroy: Jane Austen’s Beloved Friend.” Persuasions On-Line, Summer 2008, Jane Austen Society of North America, jasna.org/publications-2/book-reviews/summer-2008/the-letters-of-mrs-lefroy-jane-austens-beloved-friend/.

Kaplan, Deborah. “Jane Austen and the Bigg Sisters.” Persuasions, no. 10, 1988, Jane Austen Society of North America, jasna.org/persuasions/printed/number10/kaplan.htm.

Le Faye, Deirdre. “Three or Four Families: Suggestions for New Directions in Biographical Research.” Persuasions On-Line, vol. 30, no. 2, Spring 2010, Jane Austen Society of North America, jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol30no2/lefaye.html.

“John Harwood.” Jane Austen’s World, 29 May 2024, janeaustensworld.com/tag/john-harwood/.

“Jane Austen’s Friends: The Digweeds.” Jane Austen Quickstep Travel Guide, 2 Mar. 2025, janeaustenquickstepguide.com/janes-friends-the-digweeds/.

St Nicholas Church, Steventon. “Inside the Church—The Nave.” Steventon Parish, steventonhants.org.uk/snguide/insidechurch.html.

 

 

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Jane Austen’s Social Life: Steventon Rectory (Part 1)

Posted in Jane Austen Early Life, Jane Austen's family, Jane Austen's Influences, Jane Austen's World, Steventon on August 10, 2026| 1 Comment »

It’s well-established that Jane Austen’s family and friends played an important role in her writing life, and we know that she enjoyed a vibrant social life. She was a keen observer of human nature, as evidenced in her letters and novels. It’s intriguing to consider how the people in her life may have inspired her writing.

Austen’s novels reveal how deeply familiar she was with relationships, personalities, and social dynamics. They center on people and relationships, and in each of her novels, she situates her heroine within a specific sphere of her home life, family of origin, and social circle—either in a country “neighborhood” or in a town (or both)—but always within the context of a carefully curated group of friends, family members, and acquaintances.

In a letter to her niece Anna Austen, Jane wrote:

You are now collecting your people delightfully, getting them exactly into such a spot as is the delight of my life. Three or four families in a country village is the very thing to work on, and I hope you will do a great deal more, and make full use of them while they are so very favourably arranged. (Austen, Letter to Anna Austen, 9 Sept. 1814)

It’s clear that Austen truly enjoyed writing about a collection of families in a neighborhood village. In this series, I’ll explore how Austen’s own family, friends, and neighbors, or “village,” may have influenced the way the characters in her novels lived and socialized.

Steventon Rectory, Public Domain, Wikipedia

Rectory Life

Let’s start with Steventon Rectory, where Austen grew up. The people within that household formed her first village and family of origin. From birth through her mid-twenties, Jane lived at the Rectory, a crowded, cheerful parsonage in Hampshire, England, with her mother, father, sister, and brothers, and often several boarders. One can imagine the hustle and bustle of that home, especially when her brothers were home and her father’s pupils were boarding. (Hussain)

The home of Austen’s childhood and adolescence was full of activity and people. In this full, lively environment, young Jane was probably never alone for long, and there was plenty to keep her entertained and occupied. As her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh later wrote in A Memoir of Jane Austen, Steventon was “the cradle of her genius,” the place where Austen’s imagination first flourished in the midst of a large, affectionate family and busy household. (Austen-Leigh)

The old rectory site where the parsonage once stood.

A Lively Home

Growing up in a home filled with literature and learning must have shaped Jane Austen in countless ways. Rev. Austen encouraged his children to read widely, and the family library contained an array of books—from history and theology to poetry, essays, novels, sermons, and plays (Rev. Austen’s Bookcase).

But the Austen home offered more than books for Austen. It is described as a place of lively conversation, spirited debate, dramatic performances, music, games, and the clamor of daily life (“Jane Austen: A Life”). With brothers returning from school and university, boarding pupils from different families, neighboring clergy and gentry dropping in for dinner, and parish life unfolding all around her, Jane was surrounded by an endless supply of personalities to observe. Long before she began writing Pride and Prejudice or Emma, her bright mind was absorbing the way people spoke, behaved, loved, argued, grieved, and (occasionally) embarrassed themselves.

Regency family eating a meal together.

First Audience

Thus, even though Austen grew up in a small village in the countryside, she did not grow up reading and writing in a vacuum. She was never alone in her creative endeavors, in isolation, writing for herself—and her writing shows it. Her early writing is rife with comedic moments and hilarious, even ridiculous language, and it’s clear she wrote to entertain.

The people around Jane didn’t simply provide material for observation; they also provided her with an audience. Austen had a built-in audience in her home and community during those formative, Steventon years. Her work was enjoyed by her friends and family members, and within that safe, supportive circle, she could play with language and rhetoric, try out various characters and voices, and test her humor and wit on a safe and accessible audience. Best of all, her home audience was enthusiastic and supportive, and it’s clear that her writing talent flourished in that arena. (“Jane Austen: A Life”)

“Volume the First: Facsimile Display.”

Juvenile Dedications

Austen’s Juvenilia provides additional proof that she wrote for her family and friends, as evidenced by the dedications she wrote for her stories.

In “Love and Freindship” (sic), she wrote: “Deceived in Freindship and Betrayed in Love,” which she dedicated to her cousin Eliza de Feuillide (Austen, “Love and Freindship”). In “The Beautifull Cassandra,” Austen dedicated the story to “Miss Austen,” understood to be her older sister, Cassandra, and addressed to her with a playful compliment: “You are a Phoenix. Your taste is refined, your Sentiments are noble, & your Virtues innumerable” (Austen, “The Beautifull Cassandra”). And “Evelyn” was dedicated to “Miss Mary Lloyd” (Austen, “Evelyn”).

As we know, Austen’s early stories weren’t simply private exercises; they were written within the circle of people Jane knew and loved. Writing for that audience provided her with an opportunity to practice her writing skills and observe people’s responses to her writing. She honed those skills to perfection over the years, but much of her early talent started at home.

“Volume the First: Page I.”

Future Novels

During her years at Steventon, Austen began working on the early versions of several novels that would eventually become some of her most beloved works. She was only about nineteen when she began “Elinor and Marianne,” the early version of Sense and Sensibility, and about twenty when she wrote “First Impressions,” which would become Pride and Prejudice. By her early twenties, she had also written “Susan,” the early version of Northanger Abbey.

Before Jane Austen left Steventon at age twenty-five, she had already moved beyond writing entertaining stories for her family and friends and was developing the novels that would eventually launch her literary career. Austen’s early years at Steventon surely helped produced her incredible talent.

Road to St. Nicholas Church, Steventon. Photo @ Rachel Dodge.

Jane Austen’s Village

Austen’s first audience was her inner circle. But the world of Steventon extended beyond the Rectory, especially as Austen grew older. The families who lived nearby formed another kind of community—one that provided Jane with friendships, social gatherings, conversations, and relationships that would remain important throughout her life.

In my next article in this series, we’ll step outside the Rectory and meet some of the neighbors and friends who populated Jane’s Steventon world. From the Digweeds to the Lefroys, these families were more than simply people Jane knew; many became enduring parts of her life. They help give us an even richer glimpse into the world from which Austen drew her understanding of people and relationships.

Rachel Dodge teaches writing classes, speaks at libraries, teas, and conferences, and writes for Jane Austen’s World. She is the bestselling, award-winning author of The Anne of Green Gables Devotional, Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen, the Praying with Jane Audiobook with actress Amanda Root, and other classics-based devotional books. Her newest release, A Christmas Carol Devotional, is now available for pre-order! Visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. “The Beautifull Cassandra.” Jane Austen’s House, Jane Austen’s House Museum, https://janeaustens.house/teenage-writings/the-beautifull-cassandra/. Accessed 6 Aug. 2026.

Austen, Jane. “Evelyn.” Jane Austen Fiction Manuscripts: Volume the Third, Jane Austen’s Fiction Manuscripts, University of Oxford, https://janeausten.ac.uk/edition/ms/VolThirdHeadNote.html. Accessed 4 Aug. 2026.

Austen, Jane. “Love and Freindship.” Jane Austen: Juvenilia, jausten.it, https://www.jausten.it/jajuv201.html. Accessed 6 Aug. 2026.

Austen, Jane. Letter to Anna Austen, 9 Sept. 1814. Jane Austen’s House, Jane Austen’s House Museum, https://janeaustens.house/articles/nanowrimo/. Accessed 7 Aug. 2026.

Austen-Leigh, James Edward. A Memoir of Jane Austen. 1871. Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17797. Accessed 8 Aug. 2026.

Hussain, Azar. “The Boys at Steventon: Mr. Austen’s Students 1773–1796.” Persuasions On-Line, vol. 44, no. 1, 2023, Jane Austen Society of North America, https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/volume-44-no-1/hussain-2/. Accessed 5 Aug. 2026.

“Jane Austen: A Life.” Jane Austen’s House, Jane Austen’s House Museum, https://janeaustens.house/jane-austen/jane-austen-a-life/. Accessed 5 Aug. 2026.

“Rev. Austen’s Bookcase.” Jane Austen’s House, Jane Austen’s House Museum, https://janeaustens.house/object/the-rev-george-austens-bookcase/. Accessed 6 Aug. 2026.

“Volume the First: Front Board.” Jane Austen Fiction Manuscripts, University of Oxford and King’s College London, https://janeausten.ac.uk/facsimile/blvolfirst/Front_(left)_board.html. Accessed 8 Aug. 2026.

“Volume the First: Page I.” Jane Austen Fiction Manuscripts, University of Oxford and King’s College London, https://janeausten.ac.uk/facsimile/blvolfirst/i.html. Accessed 8 Aug. 2026.

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Jane Austen in the News

Posted in Jane Austen Films, Jane Austen in the modern world, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen TV adaptation, Steventon on April 5, 2023| 30 Comments »

Inquiring Readers, 

Several news items about Jane Austen have piqued my interest! My friend Deborah Barnum, who oversees the excellent Jane Austen in Vermont blog, referred me to an article written in February by Catherine Bennet entitled Who’s going to be triggered by Northanger Abbey? It’s hardly Game of Thrones. 

Greenwich University’s Trigger Warnings Towards Northanger Abbey

Question: Does catering to students’ sensitive sensibilities and possible antipathy towards a gently humorous and ironic novel prepare them for a successful adulthood and working life? Northanger Abbey, originally titled Susan, was written by a 23-year-old author around 230 years ago. Inquiring minds want to know.

Catherine Bennet sums up the article in one sentence, “Greenwich University is warning students to prepare themselves for the ‘toxic friendships’ Jane Austen satirises in her novel.”

TOXIC?  I gasped as I read the reasoning this university gave for protecting students from gender stereotypes and toxic relationships so they won’t be upset. Do universities no longer teach classic literature in context of the historical times in which it was written? Do literature professors no longer supervise robust debates and healthy discussions? Or help their classes to understand how, over the course of her short life, Austen’s novels and her personal viewpoint changed and transformed her own understanding of the human condition?

Must our childrens’ tender sensibilities be given a safe space from a brilliant spinster writer who helped to revolutionize the novel? I’ll tell you what triggered me, Greenwich University, and forced my bosom to heave:  It was your pandering where none was needed.

To quiet my suffering nerves, I must now reach for my smelling salts, drink some elderberry wine, and rest. A handsome companion holding my hand would not be amiss. Hint: humor and irony here. (My friend and editor would have merely added a wink emoji, but yours truly desires to dramatize her feelings à la Marianne Dashwood!)

Steventon House for Sale

Screen Shot 2023-04-05 at 12.45.12 PMJust as this article surfaced, another one popped up! While Jane Austen is more popular than ever, which has me chuffed, this account does not quite describe the before and after differences of the Steventon House. Here’s the description of the sale of Steventon House today.

The Austen family’s house was actually demolished in the early 19th century, soon after the George Austen family moved to Bath. All that remains to this day of the old Rectory is a pump surrounded by a tiny fence. The rest of the house is gone. The current sale article describes today’s site/situation as such:

“Steventon House was the birthplace of the iconic author Jane Austen,” said Ed Sugden, director of Savills, the estate’s listing agency, along with Knight Frank. “Although the original structure has since disappeared, the Georgian masterpiece that currently stands, envisioned by her older brother Edward, perfectly befits the milieu that Austen captured in her writing.”

Well, no. Take a look at the link to these images. Can you see anything that resembles late 18th C./early Regency furnishings? One must applaud the mystery that our spinster Jane still holds over her admirers today. The new owners would not be living in her family’s historic house, but they could still  imagine trodding the same lanes that she and her family walked towards  Steventon Church, to friends’ houses, and to purchase goods in nearby towns. They can still experience the landscape that nurtured her childhood and budding writing career. These imaginings alone should be worth the cost of their purchase.

Here’s a link to Remains of Jane Austen’s Steventon House Unearthed by the BBC

My previous thoughts are a perfect segue to:

Jane Austen’s Little Book of Wisdom: Words on Love, Life, Society, and Literature, Compiled by Andrea Kirk Assaf. (Click on link.)

Jane Austen's Little Book of WisdomThis book provides the reader with a quote a day or the opportunity to devour swaths of her genius at a time. Be that as it may, let’s gauge how many of Austen’s sayings are as inspiring and witty as ever:

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” – Pride & Prejudice, back cover

“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our  lives” – Persuasion, p140

“I think it ought not to set down as certain that a man must be acceptable to every woman he may like himself” – Mansfield Park, p 49

For a lady who was never married, she sounds modern and reasonable. This lovely book will provide a daily diet of Austen sensibility every day of the year. My vote: 4 out of 4 teacups.

A friend Discovers Jane Austen

A fellow board member who serves with me on a local board asked me out of the blue about the two BBC Jane Austen films he had watched. They were Emma, 2009 (he stood up and applauded the film at the end) and Sense and Sensibility, 2007, which he also applauded. When I asked him why he began watching the films, he confessed to reading this blog and being intrigued by my devotion to Jane.

He then asked if Pride and Prejudice was worth watching. After a short conversation, I realized he had never read Jane’s novels. I told him that P&P was regarded as one of the top novels in literature, and asked him which version he had borrowed from the library. It was the splendid 1995 A&E/BBC Firth/Ehle mini series.

He viewed P&P and within two days told me that this tale/movie version was his favorite. He then asked for more suggestions. I gave him a few, but he made it clear that he wanted to see the movies based on her other novels. What say you, fair readers? Which Austen film adaptations should he watch next in your opinion? And why.

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Segmented Sleep: A common Phenomenon Before the Industrial Revolution

Posted in 18th Century England, Chawton Cottage, Jane Austen's World, Sleep in 18th + 19th c, Steventon, tagged , , on January 4, 2023| 8 Comments »

“[They] thrive by sleep, not long but deep”
– Welsh saying*

Recent research shows that until 200 years ago our sleep patterns followed two cycles every night. “Each block of sleep would be around four hours, with most people staying awake for two to four hours in between.” (Sleep in the 1800’s…, 2014).

In many societies interrupted sleep was so common that it was considered normal. The first awakening occurred around midnight, three to four hours after nightfall, when people in Western cultures generally went to bed due to lack of light, for most of the populace did not have the means to afford expensive candles. 

Two decades ago Roger Ekirch, a university distinguished professor in the department of history at Virginia Tech, researched sleep habits in Europe and America. He discovered many references to biphasic sleep in over 500 original sources from centuries past, such as diaries, medical texts, literature, prayer books, and even a crime report: He found descriptions written in English, Italian, French, and Latin. Sleep documentation also existed in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Latin America, with some referring back to Ancient Greece. Ekirch would uncover over 2,000 preindustrial sleep documents in his searches.

Richard Westhall, Tate
The Dream, Richard Westhall, 1765-1836
A Woman Ministering to Another, Three Weeping Children. Young: Night Thoughts null Richard Westall 1765-1836, Tate Gallery

According to sources, some individuals took the quiet time of first wakefulness to complete tasks, such as those of housewives or servants, or to write letters, or record their dreams. Others ate a small snack, chatted with a guest or spouse, read, prayed, attended to necessary bathroom needs, or made love. Individuals followed their own nightly rituals, be it alone or with someone else. 

“…it was suggested that fertility among laborers was increased due to the midnight wakefulness; men who came home physically exhausted were more likely to have enjoyment, and successful intercourse, if there was a rest period after the day’s troubles.” – The History of Sleep Before the Industrial Revolution (historycooperative.org)

Although there were many references to segmented sleep in the past, knowledge of this once common phenomenon was largely lost to the modern world. Interrupted or biphasic sleep was not practiced everywhere. The diaries of Samuel Pepys and James Boswell indicate that both men slept uninterrupted. Studies the world over mentioned a variation of sleep patterns and practices. While hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, Namibia, and Bolivia slept through the night, a rural society in Madagascar practiced segmented sleep. – (The Atlantic)

The Industrial Revolution changed sleeping patterns for Western Europeans. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, lamps filled with whale oil, kerosene, or coal gas lit streets, factories, and homes many hours beyond sunset. This increase in light both outside and inside homes and establishments affected daily habits. 

“Following experiments with coal-gas for lighting in the 1790s, gas lights now illuminate streets, house, factories and commercial properties.” –  P. 42, A Visitor’s Guide to Jane Austen’s England. 

Sue Wilkes, author of the Visitor’s Guide, discussed an 1817 article in Ackermann’s Repository that mentions improved lights in a variety of city settings, including factories. The new brilliantly lit lamps were used

“for lighting Halls, Staircases, Dining-Rooms, Drawing-Rooms, Counting-Houses, Banking-Houses, Public-Offices, Churches, Chapels, Ball-Rooms, Public Places, etc.” – Wilkes, A Visitor’s Guide,  p 42

Lamp-lit city streets (by 1807 in London and 1820 in Paris) promoted increased travel and crowd participation in nightly entertainments, including operas and gambling clubs. 

Not everyone was so affected. People living in the rural countryside and small villages still scheduled nightly events to coincide with the full moon to guide their way along unlit lanes. When visiting friends in an adjoining village, the gentry and pseudo gentry (like the Austens) would remain as overnight guests after a long event like an assembly ball, rather than to return home in the dark of the night. Thus, sleeping habits changed more slowly in areas with far flung villages – but even the people in these regions would change their bedtime behavior by the mid 19th century. 

For many, sleep transformation was sadly a result of economic necessity. Poor country folk, who were displaced from their common lands and denied access to growing their own food and feeding their animals, flocked to cities where factory owners recruited cheap labor. Their employers found no profit in 8 hour work days, and so laborers returned home after working from 10-14 hours a day, 6 days per week. They stumbled into beds for a few hours of sleep before waking and returning to work. The laborers (which included men, women and children) had no choice but to change their sleep habits. 

Yet was one long, uninterrupted sleep period possible in a factory city? The cheaply built houses (tenements) for the poor, described in excruciating detail by Ian Mortimer in his book, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Regency Britain, were located in narrow streets and had thin walls that let in the incessant noise of clattering wagons, loud conversations, and barking dogs. The squalid, overcrowded conditions, overpowering stench of rotting food, putrid effluence of backed up privies, and the constant infestation of lice and bed bugs in uncomfortable beds prevented sound sleep. Most likely these poor factory ‘slaves’ stumbled out of beds still tired. 

Sleep patterns for aristocrats and the very rich varied vastly, for these groups had the luxury of choice. For them, the cost of candles did not factor as a deterrence against staying up at all hours. They could choose to go to bed early or to stay up until dawn and sleep uninterrupted into the afternoon. Their comfortable and very expensive beds and beddings contributed to a sound night’s sleep. Unfortunately, the servants suffered. They remained at their stations to prepare their employers for bed at a moment’s notice, and arose early to anticipate their every need when they awakened. 

According to Ekirch, by the mid-1800s, prolonged uninterrupted sleep and early rising was practiced in England and America. The second leisurely sleep was now reduced to stealing a few extra minutes of shut eye before getting ready for the day. 

Jane Austen fans and scholars know that she and her sister Cassandra were practically inseparable. Anna Lefroy wrote that the two sisters shared a small sitting room that

“Opened into a smaller chamber in which my two aunts slept. I remember a common-looking carpet with its chocolate ground, and painted press with shelves above for books, and Jane’s piano…but the charm of the room…must have been…the flow of native wit, with all the fun and nonsense of a large and clever family.” (W.& R.A. Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters, 1913.

I wonder if in rural Steventon, Jane and Cassandra experienced biphasic sleep. If so, I imagine them awakening at midnight, chatting and giggling, or discussing Jane’s progress in writing, before falling asleep again. In Chawton Cottage, where the Austen women finally settled down after years of moving from house to house after Rev. Austen’s death, the two women shared a cramped bedroom. They must have been happy, for Jane’s writing blossomed. 

There’s something magical about that first awakening in the stillness of the night. At times, when this happens to me, I go to the computer and write a few lines for this blog, or read before dropping off to sleep again. Perhaps our ancestors knew something that we’ve lost over time.

____________

*(‘They’ substituted for ‘men’)

Sources:

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Steventon Rectory Garden: Imagining the Landscape of Jane Austen’s Youth

Posted in 18th Century England, English Garden, Jane Austen's family, Jane Austen's life, Jane Austen's World, Regency gardens, Steventon on April 11, 2022| 13 Comments »

When visiting Jane Austen’s England today, you can stroll through the gardens at Chawton House and Jane Austen’s House Museum, explore the churches at Steventon and Chawton, and tour the homes and churches where Jane Austen and her relatives lived and worshipped in Bath and other areas of England. But what about Steventon Rectory (or parsonage) where Jane Austen and her family lived for the first 25 years of her life?

At Steventon, you can see the site of the rectory and get an idea of where it used to sit before it was torn down in the 1820s. It’s a beautiful spot in the lovely Hampshire countryside. And there’s more to see than just the fields and lanes where Austen grew up.

The old rectory site where the parsonage once stood. A well is the only visible remnant of that house.

If you drive up the tree-canopied lane further, you come to St. Nicholas Church, where Jane’s father preached and where Jane and her family attended church. The church is usually open for visitors who want to look or sit or reflect.

Road to St. Nicholas Church, Steventon. Photo @ Rachel Dodge.

The Rectory Landscape

Though we can’t take a tour of the gardens and property surrounding the Rectory, we do have detailed descriptions available to help us imagine what it once was like.

Deirdre Le Faye paints a descriptive picture of the Rectory garden in Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels: “Mr. Austen’s study was at the back of the house, on the warm southern side, overlooking the walled garden with its sundial, espaliered fruit trees, vegetable and flower beds and grassy walks.” Green meadows stretched beyond it, dotted with livestock.

In A Memoir of Jane Austen, James Edward Austen-Leigh provides this further description of the landscape surrounding the Rectory:

“[T]he neighbourhood had its beauties of rustic lanes and hidden nooks; and Steventon, from the fall of the ground and the abundance of its timber, was one of the prettiest spots in it… It stood ‘in a shallow valley, surrounded by sloping meadows, well sprinkled with elm-trees, at the end of a small village of cottages, each well provided with a garden, scattered about prettily on either side of the road…”

Parsonage, Steventon

Austen-Leigh continues with this: “North of the house, the road from Deane to Popham Lane ran at a sufficient distance from the front to allow a carriage drive, through turf and trees. On the south side, the ground rose gently and was occupied by one of those old-fashioned gardens in which vegetables and flowers are combined, flanked and protected on the east by one of the thatched mud walls common in that country, and overshadowed by fine elms. Along the upper or southern side of the garden ran a terrace of the finest turf…”

Improvements

In Jane Austen’s England, Maggie Lane provides several details about the changes the Austens made during their residency there. She says one of the “constant themes of discussion at Steventon Rectory was ‘improvement.’ Much had been done even before Jane’s birth, but throughout her twenty-five years’ residence there her parents were enthusiastically planting and landscaping their modest grounds.”

The following are some of the grander changes the Austens made to the landscape:

  • They planted a “screen” of chestnuts and spruce fir to “shut out the view of the farm building.”
  • They cut “an imposing carriage ‘sweep’ through the turf to the front door.”
  • The Church Walk – a “broad hedgerow of mixed timber and shrub, carpeted by wild flowers and wide enough to contain within it a winding footpath for the greater shelter and privacy of the family in their frequent walks to the church.”
  • The Elm Walk (or Wood Walk) – a similar hedgerow walk that skirted the meadows and included the “occasional rustic seat” where “weary stollers” could sit or rest.

In Austen-Leigh’s Memoir, he provides further details about the walks and hedgerows:

“But the chief beauty of Steventon consisted in its hedgerows. A hedgerow in that country does not mean a thin formal line of quickset, but an irregular border of copse-wood and timber, often wide enough to contain within it a winding footpath, or a rough cart-track. Under its shelter the earliest primroses, anemones, and wild hyacinths were to be found; sometimes the first bird’s nest; and, now and then, the unwelcome adder. Two such hedgerows radiated, as it were, from the parsonage garden. One, a continuation of the turf terrace, proceeded westward, forming the southern boundary of the home meadows; and was formed into a rustic shrubbery, with occasional seats, entitled ‘The Wood Walk.’ The other ran straight up the hill, under the name of ‘The Church Walk,’ because it led to the parish church…”

Hampshire is still breathtaking; scenes like these give us a sense of the greenery and vegetation Austen might have known.

In October 1800, Jane wrote to Cassandra about the improvements her parents were undertaking at the time: “Our improvements have advanced very well; the bank along the elm wall is sloped down for the reception of thorns and lilacs, and it is settled that the other side of the path is to continue turfed, and to be planted with beech, ash, and larch.”

In November, she wrote again: “Hacker has been here to-day putting in the fruit trees. A new plan has been suggested concerning the plantation of the new inclosure (sic) of the right-hand side of the elm walk: the doubt is whether it would be better to make a little orchard of it by planting apples, pears, and cherries, or whether it should be larch, mountain ash, and acacia.”

Reading these descriptions, it’s easy to see why Jane Austen included “improvements” to the grounds of the estates featured in so many of her novels.

Food and Livestock

However, the Austens didn’t just improve their land to make it more pleasing to the eye or pleasurable for walking. Lane tells us that “the garden at Steventon Rectory was a happy compromise between fashionable ideas and down-to-earth utility – typical of the balanced Austen approach to life.”

In Mrs. Austen’s garden, “vegetables and flowers [were] combined” to balance beauty and provision. One can imagine how the garden must have looked in the spring, summer, and fall, with its tangled profusion of color.

Today, “companion planting” is popular for many gardeners who include flowers among their vegetables.

Beyond the gardens around the Rectory, the Austens kept livestock and grew crops. Mrs. Austen oversaw the poultry-yard and the dairy: “She supervised making all the butter and cheese, baking all the bread and brewing all the beer and wine required by a large household. With the exception of such commodities as tea, coffee, chocolate and sugar, the Austens were virtually self-sufficient in food.” As for Rev. Austen, he grew “oats, barley and wheat, and reared cattle, pigs and sheep” and was able to “not only feed his family, but to sell the surplus.” (Lane)

“All the fruit, vegetables, and herbs consumed by the family were raised here. The Austens’ strawberry fields were famous, and Mrs. Austen was one of the first people in the neighbourhood to grow potatoes.” Taking this all into account, we get a better idea of the gardens and food Jane Austen enjoyed in her youth.

Today, strawberry crops are still grown and produced in Hampshire.

Reading these descriptions of the land surrounding Steventon Rectory can help us better envision what the gardens and fields looked like when Austen was growing up. It’s lovely to try to imagine where she walked and read and thought and imagined; what foods she ate; and what her parents did.

If there ever was a fundraising campaign I could get behind, it would be to someday see a replica (or a scale model) built of the Steventon Rectory and its surrounding gardens. Wouldn’t that be something? For now, I’ll keep dreaming and imagining, which almost just as nice.

If you’d like to take a deeper dive into the Steventon Rectory and its garden and farm, you can read “Why Was Jane Austen Sent away to School at Seven? An Empirical Look at a Vexing Question” in Persuasions On-Line by Linda Robinson Walker.

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. You can visit Rachel online at www.RachelDodge.com.

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