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Walcot Church in Northanger Abbey and in Austen’s Family

January 27, 2025 by Brenda S Cox

by Brenda S. Cox

“Hot! He [John Thorpe’s horse] had not turned a hair till we came to Walcot Church; but look at his forehand; look at his loins; only see how he moves; that horse cannot go less than ten miles an hour: tie his legs and he will get on.”–John Thorpe, Northanger Abbey, chapter 7

“Walcot Church” in Bath is one of several real churches that Jane Austen mentions in her novels. This particular church is closely connected to Jane Austen’s family. Austen made several visits to Bath and lived there for some years, so she knew Bath and its churches and chapels well.

As we’re celebrating Jane Austen’s life this year, we remember that church was an important part of her life. We’ve already looked at some of the churches she attended: St. Nicholas’ at Steventon, where she went as a child, St. Nicholas’ at Chawton, which she attended during the years she was writing most of her novels, and others (see links at the end of those posts).

St. Swithin’s Walcot in Bath. Completed in 1790, externally it is still much as it was when Jane Austen saw it.

“Walcot Church”

Walcot Church is the parish church of Walcot, right on the London Road coming into Bath. So it would have marked Thorpe’s arrival at the town. Wealthy and influential people worshipped there during the nineteenth century, so this may also be an indirect boast, as Thorpe tries to connect himself with a prestigious place.

A parish church can be called by the name of the parish or by the name of its patron saint. The patron saint of this church is St. Swithin, so the church is St. Swithin’s Walcot. St. Swithin (also spelled Swithun) was an Anglo-Saxon bishop. The patron saint of Winchester Cathedral, where Jane Austen is buried, is also St. Swithin.

Many “monuments”–the plaques on the walls–commemorate wealthy and influential people who have worshipped at St. Swithin’s Walcot through the years. In Northanger Abbey, Catherine contemplates a similar monument to General Tilney’s wife at the fictional Northanger parish church.

St. Swithin

St. Swithin was associated with various miracles. He came to be connected mostly with the weather. July 15 is St. Swithin’s Day (each saint has a day associated with him or her in the church calendar, usually the day of their death). According to tradition, if it rains on St. Swithun’s day, it will rain for the next forty days, but if it’s clear that day, it will be clear for forty days.

Just before she died, Jane Austen wrote a humorous poem in which St. Swithin threatens Winchester race-goers with rain because they have forgotten him.

Interior of St. Swithin’s Walcot Church today. The stained glass window was first added in 1841 and replaced in 1958 after it was shattered in World War II. It portrays Christ ascending into heaven, surrounded by his disciples. Modern seating on the main floor, rather than pews, allows the church to host a variety of events.

Austen’s Parents’ Wedding

How was the Austen family connected with St. Swithin’s?

Jane’s father, George Austen, studied at Oxford University. He eventually became an assistant chaplain, then a proctor (in charge of student discipline), called “the Handsome Proctor.” At some point he met Cassandra Leigh, niece of the Master of Balliol College at Oxford. Cassandra was the daughter of a clergyman. Her father eventually retired and moved with his family to Bath. After he died, Cassandra Leigh agreed to marry George Austen, and they were married on April 2, 1764, at St. Swithin’s Church. The register states that Cassandra was living in Walcot parish, while George was in the parish of Steventon in Hampshire. Cassandra’s mother came to the wedding, and her brother, James Leigh-Perrot, and her sister, Jane Leigh, signed as witnesses. George was 32 and Cassandra was 24. They were married by license, presumably a common license, not by banns. 

By then George Austen had been ordained and gained the living of Steventon, through his relatives. The young couple went straight to Hampshire, where they rented the parsonage at Deane while the Steventon parsonage was prepared. Of course, Jane Austen was born in 1775 in that Steventon parsonage.

Copy of the entry in the marriage register for George and Cassandra Austen, married at St. Swithin’s Walcot on April 26, 1764.
Another famous wedding at St. Swithin’s Walcot: William and Barbara Wilberforce were married there on May 30, 1797, after a six-week whirlwind courtship in Bath. Wilberforce led the fight against the trade in enslaved people and slavery.

George Austen’s Death

In 1801, George Austen left his Steventon parish to his son’s care and moved to Bath with his wife and two daughters, as his wife’s father had done much earlier. In 1805, George Austen died there. He was buried at St. Swithin’s, where you can still see his grave. Jane Austen wrote to her brother Frank, on Jan. 21 and 22, 1805:

“Our dear Father has closed his virtuous & happy life, in a death almost as free from suffering as his Children could have wished. . . . We have lost an Excellent Father. . . .The funeral is to be on Saturday, at Walcot Church. . . . [his body] preserves the sweet, benevolent smile which always distinguished him.” 

Jane did not have a suitor waiting in the wings (as her father had been waiting for her mother in a similar situation). She and her mother and sisters had to depend on her brothers for financial help after her father died.

George Austen’s grave at St. Swithin’s Walcot. He died Jan. 21, 1805. The inscription on the gravestone is worn and hard to read. It identifies him as the rector of Steventon and Deane, who died age 75 (meaning, in his 75th year). The newer brown plaque, added in 2000, adds information about his daughter Jane Austen and her residence in Bath.
The author Fanny Burney, Jane Austen’s contemporary, is buried and commemorated nearby.

Did Austen ever attend church at St. Swithin’s? I’ve written another post exploring where she may have gone to church and chapel in Bath. It’s likely that she went to St. Swithin’s when she was visiting her aunt and uncle Leigh-Perrot who lived on the Paragon in Bath. That’s the edge of Walcot parish. The church is a steep walk uphill from their home. Later on, when Jane lived in Bath, she more likely went to chapels closer to her family’s various lodgings.

St. Swithin’s is a busy, thriving church today, with many activities going on. Some events of the Jane Austen Festival last fall took place there. The Charles Simeon Trust, started in 1836 by Evangelical clergyman Charles Simeon, is a patron of St. Swithin’s, as well as of Bath Abbey.

Other Churches Mentioned in Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey refers to four other real churches or chapels, more obliquely.

Thorpe says he bought his gig from a “Christchurch man.” He is referring to one of the colleges at Oxford University. Oxford and Cambridge are made up of semiautonomous colleges, and a student’s studies were mostly at his own college. Christ Church is a college at Oxford, and its college chapel is also Christ Church Cathedral for the diocese of Oxford. Thorpe shows a cavalier attitude toward “Christchurch” as well as toward everything else.

(A cathedral is the seat of a bishop, who leads a diocese made up of a number of parishes. A parish is a geographical area which was generally served by one main church, like the parishes that Edward Ferrars and Mr. Collins serve.)

Catherine and Isabella expect to worship together in a chapel in Bath; Austen doesn’t tell us which one. It may have been the Octagon Chapel, which would have been convenient to both of them.

Northanger Abbey also indirectly refers to Bath Abbey. Twice the “church-yard” in the center of Bath comes up. The two young men Catherine and Isabella are following go “towards the church-yard,” and later Catherine trips “lightly through the church-yard” to go make her apologies to the Tilneys. This would be the church-yard of Bath Abbey, in the center of Bath. Roger E. Moore, in Jane Austen and the Reformation, argues that Austen purposely did not name the abbey, which was historically the spiritual center of the town. She may have wanted to critique the fact that Bath in her time was a place of pursuing shallow entertainment rather than deeper spirituality.

Near the end of the novel, Catherine is headed home. She looks out for the “well-known spire” of Salisbury. This is ancient Salisbury Cathedral, which has the tallest cathedral spire in England. Her father’s parish is in Salisbury diocese.

While Jane Austen invents country parishes for her characters, she also connects them with spiritual places in the real world.

Bath Abbey towers above the city of Bath. It is not mentioned by name in Northanger Abbey, though its church-yard is mentioned.

All images above ©Brenda S. Cox, 2025

Austen includes real-life churches in her novels, such as Salisbury Cathedral, with the highest spire in England. This is Catherine Morland’s landmark as she heads home.
Photo by Diego Delso, CC-BY-SA license.

Real Churches in Austen’s Novels and Letters

Garrison Chapel

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

St. George’s, Hanover Square

London Churches

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

Posted in Churches of the Austen family, Jane Austen in Bath, Jane Austen's World, Religion in Austen's England | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Jane Austen’s Bookshelf

January 20, 2025 by Rachel Dodge

In honor of our year-long celebration of 250 years of Jane Austen’s life and novels, I have compiled a list of new books you can add to your personal library each month. My selection this month is a much-anticipated book by Rebecca Romney, rare book specialist, titled Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend.

Romney’s new book provides Janeites with a brand-new perspective on the female authors Jane Austen would have read during her lifetime. The very fact that Romney is a rare book specialist caught my eye! While many of the authors she highlights are known to us, this book takes a deeper look at their works and the reasons why their novels are unknown to the general public.

Release Date: February 18, 2025
Pre-order: HERE

Book Description

From rare book dealer and guest star of the hit show Pawn Stars Rebecca Romney comes a page-turning literary adventure that introduces readers to the women writers who inspired Jane Austen—and investigates why their books have disappeared from our shelves.

Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austen’s books took the lives of women seriously, explored relationships with wit and confidence, and always, allowed for the possibility of a happy ending. She read and reread them, often wishing Austen wrote just one more.

But Austen wasn’t a lone genius. She wrote at a time of great experimentation for women writers—and clues about those women, and the exceptional books they wrote, are sprinkled like breadcrumbs throughout Austen’s work. Every character in Northanger Abbey who isn’t a boor sings the praises of Ann Radcliffe. The play that causes such a stir in Mansfield Park is a real one by the playwright Elizabeth Inchbald. In fact, the phrase “pride and prejudice” came from Frances Burney’s second novel Cecilia. The women that populated Jane Austen’s bookshelf profoundly influenced her work; Austen looked up to them, passionately discussed their books with her friends, and used an appreciation of their books as a litmus test for whether someone had good taste. So where had these women gone? Why hadn’t Romney—despite her training—ever read them? Or, in some cases, even heard of them? And why were they no longer embraced as part of the wider literary canon?

Jane Austen’s Bookshelf investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroes—women writers who were erased from the Western canon—to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer including Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, and Maria Edgeworth—and recounts Romney’s experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austen’s. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers, physically recreating Austen’s bookshelf and making a convincing case for why these books should be placed back on the to-be-read pile of all book lovers today. Jane Austen’s Bookshelf will encourage you to look beyond assigned reading lists, question who decides what belongs there, and build your very own collection of favorite novels.

About the Author

Rebecca Romney is a rare book dealer and the cofounder of Type Punch Matrix, a rare book company based in Washington, DC. She is the rare books specialist on the HISTORY Channel’s show Pawn Stars, and the cofounder of the Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize. She is a generalist rare book dealer, handling works in all fields, from first editions of Jane Austen to science fiction paperbacks. Romney is the author of Printer’s Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History (with JP Romney)and The Romance Novel in English: A Survey in Rare Books, 1769­–1999. Her work as a bookseller or writer has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, Variety, The Paris Review, and more. In 2019, she was featured in the documentary on the rare book trade, The Booksellers. She is on the Board of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and the faculty of the Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS-Minnesota).

Expertise In Rare Books

Rebecca Romney has been in the rare book trade since 2007, when she was hired by Bauman Rare Books for their new location in Las Vegas. In 2010, she became manager of that gallery. She eventually moved to Philadelphia to manage the central operations of the firm, where she also handled the acquisition of libraries and oversaw catalogue production. After a stint at the Brooklyn-based Honey & Wax Booksellers (where she co-founded a book collecting prize), she founded her own rare book firm, Type Punch Matrix.

Rebecca is on the board of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), the Council of the Bibliographical Society of America (BSA), and on the board and faculty of the Antiquarian Book Seminars. She is a member of the Grolier Club, the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie (AIB), the American Antiquarian Society (AAS), and the Baker Street Irregulars (BSI).

January New Release

While you’re waiting for Rebecca’s new book to arrive, if you’re looking for something brand-new for January, look no further!

Canterbury Classics released a refreshed Word Cloud Classics edition of Pride and Prejudice just last week. Featuring colorful sprayed edges and a heat-burnished cover with foil stamping, this edition of Pride and Prejudice is a stylish addition to your bookshelves!

Jane Austen Must-Reads for 2025

This is just the start of a wonderful journey. Many authors and publishers are coming out with new projects this year to celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th year. I am excited to explore all the options, learn a lot more about Austen, and expand my library this year. If I could attend some of the events in England this year, I would, but until then, I’ll live vicariously through online events and new books! What are you looking forward to most during this year-long celebration?

RACHEL DODGE teaches college English classes, speaks at libraries, teas, and conferences, and writes for Jane Austen’s World blog. She is the bestselling 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! You can visit her online at www.RachelDodge.com or on Instagram @KindredSpiritBooks.

Posted in 250th Anniversary of Jane Austen, Book review, Books Jane Austen Read, Jane Austen's Influences, Jane Austen's World, Pride and Prejudice Review, What Jane Austen Read | 7 Comments »

Celebrating 250 years since Jane Austen’s birth –The Georgian Era, hospitality, empire, & the formation of British identities through food

January 13, 2025 by Vic

Inquiring readers, 

Throughout 2025, our team – Vic Sanborn, Rachel Dodge, and Brenda Cox – will celebrate events and historical details during Jane Austen’s life (including the years just before and after).This year marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth on December 16th, 1775. She lived her short life during King George III’s reign. (Austen died in 1817, aged 41; the king died in 1820, aged 81.) Jane Austen Society organizations around the world will, in the next twelve months, mark this important year with their own celebrations and acknowledgments of her life and the events that influenced her talents. 

Most of us who have read about dining during the Georgian era learned about 18th C. dining etiquette largely through novels, films, and television shows that featured fabulous Aristocratic settings in high-ceilinged dining rooms, liveried servants at the ready to serve or take away plates, and tables laden with food in fine silver or porcelain dishes. 

Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s dinner for Elisabeth Bennet and Mr Collins and Charlotte. Screen shot taken by Vic Sanborn

But how was British food celebrated among the other classes? How did British empire building affect what it meant to be British in terms of food tastes? Both of these topics will be addressed in this post by 1) renowned British food historian, Ivan day, and 2) Dr Sarah Fox, senior lecturer and researcher at Edge Hill University.

1) Dining and Hospitality in Eighteenth Century English Provincial Towns and Cities

In this YouTube video, Mr Day discusses the influences that changed dining and hospitality in 18th century Britain. French foods at court in the 1690s began to spread from British aristocrats to the provinces throughout the 1700s and into the 1780’s and 90’s, when Austen was a child.

English food preferences changed in remarkable ways, which Mr Day discusses in detail. This 36 minute video offers both closed captioning and a transcript. 

A few highlights of the talk that struck me include these drawings of a provincial English meal in Cornwall that were made in the 1770s by a visiting Dutch artist. He provided a marvelous snapshot of 18th C. dining.

Provincial meal, two courses

Mr Day notes the details of these drawings, The details are remarkable. The pattens at the upper right were once worn to protect ladies’ shoes from mud. Only some vegetables were presented, with the emphasis still on eating meat. Notice the unique placement of a knife, fork and spoon to the right of the plates. A waiter holds a tray with wine glasses and points to a sideboard filled with more glasses, as well as decanters. 

Dinner table

The second drawing shows a table laden with assorted sweets: cookies, almond biscuits, oranges, butter cream, and preserved cherries. 

Dessert table

Another one of his observations intrigued me – that of an enormous English pie, labeled the Northern Country Great Pie in the video. James Lowther, the First Earl of Lonsdale House in Cumbria offered such a pie in 1763. It was the English aristocratic Christmas tradition to create this pie, meant to be eaten after dancing. Just imagine! The ball supper was served at 2 or 3 in the morning. Its size and weight of 22 stone (308 lbs.) must have been staggering, considering the list of baked animals that went into its making. This is a screenshot of half the list. 

Half the list of the animals in a ball supper pie

To view the entire list, click on this link entitled Eat the Entire Creation if You Dare, which sits on Mr Day’s blog, Food History Jottings. One can only read in awe at the amount of protein those animals contributed. These ball supper pies were not only large, but expensive, and most likely made from game hunted on the aristocrat’s land. 

At the end of his video, Mr Day showed pie molds that resulted in exquisite creations. This link to raised pie molds at MichaelFinlay.com shows a pie made by Mr Day from the Harewood mould.

Smaller, often hand-held pies were consumed by all classes, especially the working classes and travelers. By 1775, the year of Jane Austen’s birth, these portable foods had become ubiquitous. Pies were made for long distance travel. They encased meat and fruits in a variety of pastries that helped food to last longer, an important feature in an age without refrigeration. In 17th and 18th century Britain…

“…pies were devices in many senses of the word. They were used to preserve food,…and to prevent rot. Perhaps in part because of their preservative functions, pies were well-traveled, sent to friends and family members across long distances. Pies were embedded within global foodways, filled with ingredients sourced from around the planet.” – Hearse Pies and Pastry Coffins: Material Cultures of Food, Preservation, and Death in the Early Modern British World, Amanda E. Herbert &Michael Walkden, 07 Sep 2023

These portable foods had a long and varied history, starting centuries ago with the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Recipes differed in each country, which did not diminish their popularity. Imagine being able to take food safely on long voyages, whether over land or sea, in an age when so many foods were consumed fresh.

The years between 1688 and 1815 were an important and exciting time for the British in terms of trade. Great Britain oversaw a sprawling empire during the Georgian era:

“Domestic industry [in England] flourished, with many workers pursuing dual occupations on a seasonal basis in industry and agriculture. English society contained a flourishing and more extensive middling sector than any other western country, including the Dutch Republic. This provided a strong platform for commerce with, and settlement in, far-flung territories.” – Symbiosis: Trade and the British Empire, Professor Kenneth Morgan, History, BBC.

Dr Sarah Fox, from Edge Hill University, examined the following topic: 

2) Britishness revisited: food and the formation of British identities in the late eighteenth century.

Trade routes and the enormous reach of the British empire over the world began to change British attitudes towards food. Dr Fox discusses this topic in detail in the YouTube video below. This presentation also has closed captioning and a transcript. In this instance, I found both features useful, since, while Dr Fox’s research is fascinating, her rapid and soft-spoken speech is hard to follow. Still, this video is a worthwhile investment of time.

During what is now regarded as the long 18th century, which spans the Georgian era that either ended in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars, or in 1830, which marks the death of King George IV (these dates are  still under discussion), the British empire oversaw a dominant position among the major European trading empires. 

At the end of this period, traders and merchant ships enabled the British to successfully expand beyond the boundaries of their island nation. They imported goods and foods from North America and the West Indies, Africa, the Carribean, and the East Indies. Closer to home they traded with Ireland, Germany, and Russia. Maps from The Guardian show the routes taken overseas in the 18th C. with densely criss crossed lines of travel. 

King George III (‘Farmer George’)

As mentioned earlier, during her lifetime, Austen knew only one king. Her distaste of George III’s eldest son, the Prince Regent, is well known, and has been documented on this blog.

“George [III] was particularly interested and adept at farming. He felt strongly that he should use his lands to better feed the nation, and used Windsor and Kew to develop improvements in agriculture. He published his thoughts on more than one occasion, using the pseudonym ‘Ralph Robinson’.

Cropped image of King George as Farmer George, with his wife, 1785. © Historic Royal Palaces

George enlisted Sir Joseph Banks to smuggle merino sheep from Spain to breed them with British sheep. This flock of experimental sheep grazed under the Great Pagoda at Kew. 

George would walk his fields and till the soil himself, often being mistaken for an ordinary gentleman. His nickname of ‘Farmer George’ endeared him to the public”. – Quote from George III, The Complex King, Historic Royal Palaces.

As it turned out, Farmer George had a simple, old-fashioned (but knowledgable) taste in cuisine. An article from the University College London (UCL) entitled “Chicken broth & lobster among 3,000 dishes served to King George III, 3 November 2023”, in which a research group, including Dr Fox, lists the top ten foods generally consumed by King George III. It is obvious his food tastes were quite conservative. They were:

Chicken broth, Sweet tarts, Roasted capon (similar to roast chicken), Roast mutton, Asparagus, Lobster, Spinach, Artichokes,Roast chicken, andRoast beef.

It’s fascinating to hear Dr Fox list the enormous amount of research regarding foods eaten during the Long 18th through datasets accumulated from meticulous records that were kept regarding household food consumption. Records that survived are available all over the UK. Ivan Day also benefited from such record keeping, which he shared in his video. 

The typical British fare of the 18th century was not the only food ‘Farmer George’ and his family consumed. The king and queen occasionally dined on more exotic dishes during state occasions, including recipes based on French cuisine and foods brought in from the empire, such as those from the West and East Indies.

Like British pies, turtles also offered a portable solution for travelers. British sailors used turtles for fresh food. They could be transported alive in sea water and eaten when they were needed. The meat of a six pound turtle could feed quite a few men. Soon, turtles, once a preferred food for sailors, were prepared as an exotic food for aristocrats. 

In 1744, Admiral of the Fleet, George Anson, brought two 300 lb turtles as gifts, one of which was given to the Royal Society’s Dining Club. From this time on, chefs created delicious dishes and soups from imported turtle meat. In fact, famed chef Marie-Antoine Careme, who created sumptuous banquets for the Prince Regent, thought turtle soup to be quite competitive with British roast beef! Fifty years after their introduction to British cuisine, turtles became a food mainstay for the British. 

Captain George Anson, 1755, portrait by Joshua Reynolds.
Wikimedia Commons/National Portrait Gallery, London. Looking Through Art: Turtle Cuisine

Interestingly, George III, whose food tastes were traditional, ate only mock turtle soup made from a calf’s head, and had it served a mere fourteen times between 1788 and 1801. A JSTOR Daily article, Turtle Soup: From Class to Mass to Aghast, describes how turtle soup and mock turtle soup became accessible to the British middle classes. These tastes soon spread to the Continent and North America.

Meanwhile, the Prince Regent, who was more adventurous in his culinary explorations than his father, ate turtle meat at Carlton House at least once per week. He also embraced Eastern culture and built the Brighton Pavilion using Eastern motifs influenced by Eastern trade. 

According to Dr Fox, the British adapted to the unfamiliar flavors and spices from the Far East more slowly than the foods from the West Indies. In addition, these spices were expensive. Nabobs, or British men who were employed in the East India Company, returned to Great Britain with their families, along with the fortunes they made in India’. They also brought with them their love of Indian spiced food. To many, these dishes were too hot and strong in flavor for British tastes — at first. 

Print shows profile portraits of 20 men, called nabobs, who are representatives of the East India Company that have returned home with newly acquired wealth, generally through dubious or corrupt means.
Names: Holland, William, active 1782-1817, publisher. Library of Congress

In 1747, Hannah Glasse, cookbook author, published the first recipe for curry in her cookbook, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. As Dr Fox relates, Glasse included rabbit plus onions, pepper, corn, rice, coriander seeds and butter in this edition. By 1751, she had replaced the rabbit with chicken. Then added new spices that included ginger, turmeric, lemon, and cream. Both the rice and coriander were removed. Due to the turmeric, this dish resulted in a bright yellow color. The recipe, adapted for British taste, was reproduced in a variety of cookbooks practically unchanged for years afterwards. As I understand, rice was added as a side dish to the changed cuisine. Glasse’s curry recipe was mild enough to satisfy British tastes.

While George III did not eat curry at all, in 1816, the Prince Regent was served a curry dish. From this period on, the British had, through trade and royal influences, adapted their taste towards foreign foods and spices. Today, over 12,000 curry houses are spread across Britain. 

As a writer, Austen used food descriptions to characterize the people in her novels – Mr Woodhouse’s penchant for gruel; Mr Bingley’s lavish ball and a sumptuous supper meal afterwards, and Mrs Bennet’s two courses served for Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy. Her two courses most likely consisted of anywhere from 10 -25 dishes. 

One can imagine how much Elizabeth must have cringed when her mother assured Mr Collins that they were able to keep a good cook, and that her daughters had nothing to do in the kitchen, (Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 13.) Austen’s use of food in her novels was sheer genius as she introduced her readers to absurdity and reality at the table!

Additional Resources:

Ivan Day

Spotify: The British Food History Podcast: 18th Century Dining, Ivan Day, January 2023

Ivan Day is a social historian of food culture and a professional chef and confectioner.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/22BHsKHncyk2i6UXEzcIY2

Issue 30: Cooking for the Georgians — Jane Austen Literacy Foundation

18th Century Autumn Pies, All Things Georgian

Sarah Fox

How Curry Conquered Britain, a short video by the BBC.

18th Century Curry Recipe – Beamish

Trade goods from the East: Spices | The East Indies | The Places Involved | Slavery Routes

Chicken broth & lobster among 3,000 dishes served to King George III | UCL News

About  George III and George IV

The Royal Diets of George III and George IV | All Things Georgian

George III, the Complex King | Kew Palace

Regency Banquet is inspired by Antonin Carême – the original ‘celebrity chef’

About George III: Historic Royal Palaces: Kew Palace

Note:

Green sea turtles, whose popularity as a food slowly declined over the centuries, had been caught in such prolific numbers that in 1973 they were classified as endangered. 

A short history of turtles as food, starting with seafarers in the early 18th century and culminating 50 years later, as turtle soup began to be closely associated with the British empire and British Identity.  Turtle Soup: From Class to Mass to Aghast – JSTOR Daily

Posted in British Empire, Formation of British Identities, Georgian Era Food, Jane Austen's World, King George III, Prince Regent | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Jane Austen’s Christmases

December 23, 2024 by Brenda S Cox

By Brenda S. Cox

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

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

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

The Musgrove family at Christmas

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

Family and Friends

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Church on Christmas Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christmas Gaieties

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

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

What did those gaieties involve?

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

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

Gifts

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

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

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

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

Games

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dancing

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

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

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

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

Other Christmas Traditions

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

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

 

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

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

Christmas Carols  and Christmas Carols of Yore 

Regency Christmas Tree (with links to other Christmas articles) 

Robin Redbreast 

Christmas Cartoons  

Christmas Pie 

Christmas Plum Pudding 

Christmas Games and Songs 

Christmas Evergreen Decorations  and Decorating with Holly 

Posted in Anglican Church, Christmas, Jane Austen's World | Tagged , | 4 Comments »

December in Jane Austen’s World

December 16, 2024 by Rachel Dodge

We’ve arrived at December in Jane Austen’s World, dear readers! We’ve traversed Austen’s life, letters, and novels for a full year now, and it’s been a wonderful adventure.

You can find the rest of the “A Year in Jane Austen’s World” series here: Jan, Feb, Mar, April, May, June, July, Aug, Sept, Oct, and Nov.

Happy Birthday, Jane Austen!

To start, December is Jane Austen’s birthday month, and today, December 16th, is her birthday! Let’s stop for a moment and wish a very Happy Birthday to Jane!!

Can you imagine raising a child like Jane? I’m sure her parents had no idea that their little bundle of joy held such an incredible gift within her – a gift that would bless people around the world for generations to come. Almost 250 years after her birth, people still study and celebrate her writing every day!

December in Hampshire

As we do each month, let us now turn our attention to the lovely Hampshire countryside, the place where Jane spent most of her life, and see what it looks like this time of year. Here are the Chawton Great House gardens in December:

Chawton House in December: Photo @ChawtonHouse.

As one might assume, the weather turns cold and brisk this time of year. However, the weather in December did not keep Regency people at home as much as January-March, so many of Austen’s letters and novels feature parties, balls, and gatherings in December. Austen makes mention of December weather in her letters here:

Steventon (26 December 1798): 

“The snow came to nothing yesterday, so I did go to Deane, and returned home at nine o’clock at night in the little carriage, and without being very cold.”

Castle Square (27 December 1808):

“We have had snow on the ground here almost a week; it is now going, but Southampton must boast no longer.”

And here is a photo of Jane Austen’s House Museum all decked out for Christmas:

Jane Austen’s House, Photo: @JaneAustensHouse.

December in Jane Austen’s Letters

We have letters posted from Steventon on December 1st, 18th, 24th, and 28th in 1798; from Castle Square on December 9th and 27th in 1808; and a small mention in January 1809 of an important letter from Charles from posted from Bermuda in December 1808.

But first, perhaps one of the most important letters we have from December – Jane’s father’s letter to his sister announcing his second daughter’s entry into the world!

You have doubtless been for some time in expectation of hearing from Hampshire, and perhaps wondered a little we were in our old age grown such bad reckoners but so it was, for Cassy certainly expected to have been brought to bed a month ago: however last night the time came, and without a great deal of warning, everything was soon happily over. We have now another girl, a present plaything for her sister Cassy and a future companion. She is to be Jenny.

Tree-lined lane to St. Nicholas Church, Steventon. Photo @ Rachel Dodge.

Other odds and ends from Austen’s December letters are below, but I encourage you to read them in their entirety. Her letters are always so newsy and amusing. Several in this batch include information about her brothers away at sea. Relaying letters and news about their whereabouts and safety was of utmost importance to the entire family, as is true of every family with members serving in the military.

Steventon (1 December 1798):

  • News of Frank: “I am so good as to write to you again thus speedily, to let you know that I have just heard from Frank (Francis). He was at Cadiz, alive and well, on October 19, and had then very lately received a letter from you, written as long ago as when the ‘London’ was at St. Helen’s… Frank writes in good spirits, but says that our correspondence cannot be so easily carried on in future as it has been, as the communication between Cadiz and Lisbon is less frequent than formerly. You and my mother, therefore, must not alarm yourselves at the long intervals that may divide his letters. I address this advice to you two as being the most tender-hearted of the family.“
  • A splendid dinner: “Mr. Lyford…came while we were at dinner, and partook of our elegant entertainment. I was not ashamed at asking him to sit down to table, for we had some pease-soup, a sparerib, and a pudding. He wants my mother to look yellow and to throw out a rash, but she will do neither.”
  • New baby and Jane’s opinions on ‘laying in’: “Mary does not manage matters in such a way as to make me want to lay in myself. She is not tidy enough in her appearance; she has no dressing-gown to sit up in; her curtains are all too thin, and things are not in that comfort and style about her which are necessary to make such a situation an enviable one. Elizabeth was really a pretty object with her nice clean cap put on so tidily and her dress so uniformly white and orderly.”
Regency-style meal (reproduction). Jane Austen’s House, Photo: @JaneAustensHouse.

Steventon (18 December 1798):

  • A birthday message received: “I am very much obliged to my dear little George for his message,—for his love at least; his duty, I suppose, was only in consequence of some hint of my favorable intentions towards him from his father or mother. I am sincerely rejoiced, however, that I ever was born, since it has been the means of procuring him a dish of tea. Give my best love to him…”

Steventon (24 December 1798):

  • News of both brothers in the Navy: “Admiral Gambier, in reply to my father’s application, writes as follows: As it is usual to keep young officers in small vessels, it being most proper on account of their inexperience, and it being also a situation where they are more in the way of learning their duty, your son (Charles) has been continued in the ‘Scorpion;’ but I have mentioned to the Board of Admiralty his wish to be in a frigate, and when a proper opportunity offers and it is judged that he has taken his turn in a small ship, I hope he will be removed. With regard to your son now in the ‘London’ (Francis) I am glad I can give you the assurance that his promotion is likely to take place very soon, as Lord Spencer has been so good as to say he would include him in an arrangement that he proposes making in a short time relative to some promotions in that quarter.”
  • One of Jane’s now-famous quotes: “Miss Blackford is agreeable enough. I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.“
  • A Christmas-time ball: “Our ball was very thin, but by no means unpleasant. There were thirty-one people, and only eleven ladies out of the number, and but five single women in the room. Of the gentlemen present you may have some idea from the list of my partners,—Mr. Wood, G. Lefroy, Rice, a Mr. Butcher (belonging to the Temples, a sailor and not of the 11th Light Dragoons), Mr. Temple (not the horrid one of all), Mr. Wm. Orde (cousin to the Kingsclere man), Mr. John Harwood, and Mr. Calland, who appeared as usual with his hat in his hand, and stood every now and then behind Catherine and me to be talked to and abused for not dancing. We teased him, however, into it at last. I was very glad to see him again after so long a separation, and he was altogether rather the genius and flirt of the evening. He inquired after you.”

  • There were twenty dances, and I danced them all, and without any fatigue. “I was glad to find myself capable of dancing so much, and with so much satisfaction as I did; from my slender enjoyment of the Ashford balls (as assemblies for dancing) I had not thought myself equal to it, but in cold weather and with few couples I fancy I could just as well dance for a week together as for half an hour. My black cap was openly admired by Mrs. Lefroy, and secretly I imagine by everybody else in the room…”
Regency Dancing, Pride and Prejudice (1995).

Steventon (28 December 1798):

  • More Navy news: “Frank is made. He was yesterday raised to the rank of Commander, and appointed to the ‘Petterel’ sloop, now at Gibraltar. A letter from Daysh has just announced this, and as it is confirmed by a very friendly one from Mr. Mathew to the same effect, transcribing one from Admiral Gambier to the General, we have no reason to suspect the truth of it. As soon as you have cried a little for joy, you may go on, and learn further that the India House have taken Captain Austen’s petition into consideration,—this comes from Daysh,—and likewise that Lieutenant Charles John Austen is removed to the ‘Tamar’ frigate,—this comes from the Admiral. We cannot find out where the ‘Tamar’ is, but I hope we shall now see Charles here at all events.”

Castle Square (8 December 1808):

  • A December ball: “Our ball was rather more amusing than I expected. Martha liked it very much, and I did not gape till the last quarter of an hour. It was past nine before we were sent for, and not twelve when we returned. The room was tolerably full, and there were, perhaps, thirty couple of dancers. The melancholy part was to see so many dozen young women standing by without partners, and each of them with two ugly naked shoulders. It was the same room in which we danced fifteen years ago. I thought it all over, and in spite of the shame of being so much older, felt with thankfulness that I was quite as happy now as then. We paid an additional shilling for our tea, which we took as we chose in an adjoining and very comfortable room.”

Castle Square (27 December 1808):

  • A new pianoforte: “Yes, yes, we will have a pianoforte, as good a one as can be got for thirty guineas, and I will practise country dances, that we may have some amusement for our nephews and nieces, when we have the pleasure of their company.”
Regency ladies at a pianoforte.

December in Jane Austen’s Novels

There are several mentions in Austen’s novels about Christmas, but as next week’s post from Brenda will focus on Christmas scenes from the novels, we shall mostly stick to the month of December in this article with a few helpful quotes about the Christmas season:

Sense and Sensibility

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

Pride and Prejudice

  • A family holiday: “On the following Monday, Mrs. Bennet had the pleasure of receiving her brother and his wife, who came, as usual, to spend the Christmas at Longbourn.”

Mansfield Park

  • A special visit from William: “William determining, soon after her removal, to be a sailor, was invited to spend a week with his sister in Northamptonshire before he went to sea. Their eager affection in meeting, their exquisite delight in being together, their hours of happy mirth, and moments of serious conference, may be imagined; as well as the sanguine views and spirits of the boy even to the last, and the misery of the girl when he left her. Luckily the visit happened in the Christmas holidays, when she could directly look for comfort to her cousin Edmund; and he told her such charming things of what William was to do, and be hereafter, in consequence of his profession, as made her gradually admit that the separation might have some use.”

Emma

  • Tolerable weather: “Though now the middle of December, there had yet been no weather to prevent the young ladies from tolerably regular exercise; and on the morrow, Emma had a charitable visit to pay to a poor sick family, who lived a little way out of Highbury.”
  • The fogs of December: “The next thing wanted was to get the picture framed; and here were a few difficulties. It must be done directly; it must be done in London; the order must go through the hands of some intelligent person whose taste could be depended on; and Isabella, the usual doer of all commissions, must not be applied to, because it was December, and Mr. Woodhouse could not bear the idea of her stirring out of her house in the fogs of December.”
  • Dinner party at Randalls: “The evening before this great event (for it was a very great event that Mr. Woodhouse should dine out, on the 24th of December) had been spent by Harriet at Hartfield, and she had gone home so much indisposed with a cold, that, but for her own earnest wish of being nursed by Mrs. Goddard, Emma could not have allowed her to leave the house.”
Regency dinner party, Emma (2020).

Persuasion

  • Charles and Mary Musgrove married 16 December, Jane’s birthday: “Sir Walter had improved it by adding, for the information of himself and his family, these words, after the date of Mary’s birth—’Married, December 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of Charles Musgrove, Esq. of Uppercross, in the county of Somerset…'”
  • Mary Musgrove bemoans the lack of December parties: “We have had a very dull Christmas; Mr and Mrs Musgrove have not had one dinner party all the holidays. I do not reckon the Hayters as anybody. The holidays, however, are over at last: I believe no children ever had such long ones. I am sure I had not.”

Northanger Abbey

  • A December visit: “Mrs. Thorpe and her daughters had scarcely begun the history of their acquaintance with Mr. James Morland, before she remembered that her eldest brother had lately formed an intimacy with a young man of his own college, of the name of Thorpe; and that he had spent the last week of the Christmas vacation with his family, near London.”
  • A long lecture on dress: “Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim. Catherine knew all this very well; her great aunt had read her a lecture on the subject only the Christmas before…”

December Dates of Importance

And now for our monthly round-up of December dates of importance relating to Jane and her family. This time, there is plenty of family news, plus important publishing news and one very difficult sorrow:

Family News:

  • 16 December 1775: Jane Austen born at home in Steventon.
  • December 1786: Jane and Cassandra Austen leave Abbey School.
  • 23 December 1788: After finishing at the Royal Naval Academy, Francis Austen sails to the East Indies.
  • 27 December 1791: Edward Austen marries Elizabeth Bridges.
  • 31 December 1797: Henry Austen marries Eliza de Feuillide.
  • December 1800: Rev. Austen announces his retirement and intention to move to Bath.
  • 2 and 3 December 1802: Harris Bigg-Wither proposes to Austen and she accepts. The next day, she rejects his proposal.

Historic Dates:

  • 16 December 1773: An event occurs in the American colonies now known as the Boston Tea Party.
  • 2 December 1804: Napoleon crowns himself emperor of France.

Writing:

  • December 1815: Emma is published and dedicated to the Prince Regent.
  • December 1817: Northanger Abbey and Persuasion published together, posthumously.

Sorrows:

  • 16 December 1804: Austen’s close friend, Mrs. Anne Lefroy, is killed in a riding accident.
Boston Tea Party, engraving in W. D. Cooper’s The History of North America, London: E. Newberry, 1789.

Looking Forward to Next Year

Writing this series for the past twelve months has been a great joy. I’ve learned a lot, and I feel as though I know and understand Jane Austen and her life and time period better than before. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as well! In the new year, I look forward to a year-long celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and all the events and books coming our way. Have a very happy Christmas!

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, and Praying with Jane: 31 Days Through the Prayers of Jane Austen. Her most recent book is The Secret Garden Devotional. A true kindred spirit at heart, Rachel loves books, bonnets, and ballgowns. Visit her online at www.RachelDodge.com.

Posted in A Year in Jane Austen's World, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen's Birthday, Jane Austen's enduring popularity, Jane Austen's family, Jane Austen's letters, Jane Austen's life, Jane Austen's World, Regency, Regency Customs, Regency Life | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments »

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