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

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

by Brenda S. Cox

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Great Bookham in Austen’s Novels

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Box Hill

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

The Parsonage

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

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

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

St. Nicolas’ Church, Great Bookham, History

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

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

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

Other Literary Connections at Great Bookham

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

St. Nicolas’ Church, Great Bookham, Today

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All photos copyright Brenda S. Cox, 2024.

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

Sources

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

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

Church of St. Nicolas, official list entry

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

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

Further Exploration

Jane Austen and Great Bookham, by Tony Grant

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

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

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

Other Churches Connected to Jane Austen

Steventon

Chawton

Hamstall Ridware and Austen’s cousin Edward Cooper

Adlestrop Church and the Leigh Family

Stoneleigh Abbey Chapel

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Natural Formations: fact and fiction about a site well-known to Jane Austen readers, by Tony Grant

Posted in Emma, Jane Austen's World, tagged , , , , on August 13, 2020| 10 Comments »

Standing, looking west across the Surrey countryside to the wooded ridge of hills in the distance, a line of trees mark the horizon. A sunny, hot day, blue skies with some clouds, small patches of white high above us,. Marilyn, Abi, Emily and myself stand two hundred and twenty four meters above sea level. Patches of fields lined with thick hedges of trees and shrubs spread out before us. Box, yew, beech, ash and oak populate the landscape gathered in woods or spread out in small copses on this hill top. Looking out over this scenery, I make out the distant markings of a football pitch. To one side is another field with a cricket square neatly and closely mowed in the middle of it, a wooden pavilion at one side of the field.

Image of a view of Burford.

Image of a view of Burford. Image courtesy of Tony Grant.

Below, almost looking straight down, a white 18th century mansion is surrounded by lawns and a pattern of four knot gardens are at the rear of the house. Although high up here there is no breeze and the trees are still and the air is warm. A few insects and butterflies move through the air nearby. Other people, families and partners and single walkers move at a distance across the chalk grassland steeply sloping down towards Burford Bridge that crosses the River Mole winding its way past the bottom of the hill. The A24, the Dorking bypass, hums with traffic. I catch glimpses of the red clay tiled roofs of flint cottages , through the canopy of trees, that make up the village of Mickleham to the north. Dorking is to the south. Great Bookham is due west and Leatherhead is unseen to the north west. The chatter of children as they race down the steep slope of Burford Spur I hear nearby but their sounds get fainter as they race away. The sun warms my skin, pleasantly.

Image of Burford spur

Image of Burford Spur, courtesy of Tony Grant

We walk on down Burford Spur before turning back. I am now required to step upwards, leaning forward, and push hard on thigh and calf muscles to make my way back up to the top of this very steep slope. I parked my car near the old fort at the National Trust car park.

On top of Box Hill. Image courtesy of Tony Grant

On top of Box Hill. Image courtesy of Tony Grant

I decided to pick up a piece of flint to take home. Stones make a place. One stone is a piece of that place. This piece of flint was still embedded in the firm ground and some kicking and pulling and pushing with my hands were needed to prise it loose. I take stones home from places . A piece of smooth granite from a beach in Cornwall, some sandstone from a cliff face in Dorset, a piece of shale from the isle of White and now this piece of flint from the top of Box Hill in Surrey.

The Box Hill Picnic: Emma

Image of A view of Boxhill, Surrey (with Dorking in the distance), George Lambert, 1733, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain image.

A view of Boxhill, Surrey (with Dorking in the distance), George Lambert, 1733, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain image.

Things did not go quite as planned or as wished. The Sucklings were unable to come. Mrs Elton was disappointed, her plans thwarted but the trip to Box Hill was to go ahead.

Emma thought she would like to go to Box Hill too, separately from Mrs Elton’s expedition of course. She didn’t want to miss out on what others might experience. Her party should be simple and unpretentious compared to that of Mrs Eltons. Mr Weston decided other plans and suggested to Emma and Mrs Elton combining the two parties. Mrs Elton agreed and Emma felt forced to very reluctantly agree.

Mr Weston directed everybody on the day. His wife, Mrs Weston, was to stay with Mr Woodhouse to keep him company. Emma and Harriet were to go in one carriage. Miss Bates and Jane Fairfax, were to go with Mr and Mrs Elton and the gentlemen, Mr Knightley, Frank Churchill and Mr Weston on horse back.

Chris Hammond illustration of the picnic on Box Hill in Jane Austen’s Emma. Image in the public domain.

All admired the views on arrival. But there was a

deficiency.. languor.. a want of spirts and a lack of unison.”

They all separated too much into parties. Frank Churchill was silent and stupid, looking without seeing.

Frank eventually turned his attention to Emma and overtly carried on a most blatant flirtation, an act that Emma, perhaps to her surprise, doesn’t enjoy. It is all an obvious act. She feels his falsehood. Frank Churchill proceeds to upset Emma and the whole party by requesting they all reveal what they are thinking about. This makes the general mood worse. We can guess at their true thoughts. Emma is rightly afraid to hear their honest opinions. She feels the unease and disquiet created by this whole venture.He changes the request, asking each to say

one thing clever or two things moderately clever or three things dull.”

Miss Bates volunteers, perhaps to fill the unwanted silence and apprehension, suggesting she can say three things dull. Emma quips that she would find it difficult to limit the number to

only three at once.”

Miss Bates takes the hint and is mortified. Mr Weston provides a conundrum based on Emma’s name. Finally as they depart Mr Knightley takes Emma aside and points out the hurt she has caused her lifelong acquaintance and family friend, Miss Bates.

It was badly done indeed.”

The party to Box Hill is certainly not a success. Everything goes wrong. Mr and Mrs Elton walk off , Frank Churchill has his mind on other things, Emma feels uncomfortable under his feigned flirtations, she up sets Miss Bates and Mr Knighltley is angered by Emmas behaviour.This is the point in the novel when Emma has her naivity in human interactions and her immaturity laid bare. We all have to confront ourselves before we can change and develop. Emma is confronted by her own shortcomings. It is the beginning of self awareness and the need to be remorseful. A painful journey for Emma. This chapter is only is only six pages long in my edition but the human traits that it reveals are numerous,and the importance to the arc of the plot and the final outcomes is pivotal. Officiousness, immaturity, pride, selfishness, naivity, anger, cunning, secrecy, deceit, remorse and forgiveness. ”It was badly done indeed.” But, in another way, it was, well done.

A piece of flint:

The flint is heavy, about two kilogrammes in weight, nine centimetres long and about five centimetres wide.There are sharp angular edges where some of the flint has been broken off. Bluey black glassy hard faces are revealed. The stone is mostly covered in a thin white hard calcareous rind like the rind covering a cheese, enveloping most of its smooth surface. Hollows and rounded lumps push up beneath its white ,”skin,” like the shapes of bones lieing beneath its surface, finger bones, wrist joints, protruding heels, knuckle bones. A little bit of crumbling chalk, the substance it has been torn from, hides in a hollow on one side.

Image of The Stonebreaker by John Brett, exhibited 1858, Wikimedia Commons

The Stonebreaker by John Brett, exhibited 1858, Wikimedia Commons

Chalk was formed during the cretaceous period some 145 to 66 million years ago. It was formed under marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite shells shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores  A white muddy layer was formed on the sea bed. The same earth movements , the violent shifting of the earths plates, that formed the Alps formed these downlands in Southern England rippling and folding the earths surface. That soft white sediment of calcite shells hardened and formed the chalk. Within the chalk, creatures such as sponges and other organisms created pockets which, molecule by molecule by molecule were replaced by flint as water and minerals from the chalk seeped into the spaces.

Flint has been used for many things over the millennia. Axes, knives and arrow heads, used by the hunter gatherers that roamed this land over ten thousand years ago, were made from flint. It has been used in rural buildings. Today we can see many cottages and farm buildings located around Box Hill with layers of flint embedded in the surface of their walls. Some village churches are made from flint. The Romans built coastal forts from flint. It is a very durable material. Flint was used to create the spark that ignited the gunpowder on the ignition pans of flintlock muskets. It was used in the eighteenth century to strike against a piece of steel to create sparks to light fires with. We can say about, a cold callous person, that they have, “a heart of flint.”

Image of Box Hill flint found by Tony Grant. Image permission of Tony Grant

Image of Box Hill flint found by Tony Grant. Image courtesy of Tony Grant

Here is my piece of flint from the top of Box Hill in Surrey , from the very location, at the top of Burford Spur with Mickleham to the north and Dorking to the south where Emma Woodhouse and the gentle people of Highbury gathered for a picnic.

Tony Grant and family on top of Box Hill. Image courtesy of Tony Grant.

All this on a hill of chalk downland in the centre of Surrey on a hot summers day.

 

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Emma Woodhouse’s Surrey

Posted in jane austen, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen's World, tagged , , on April 9, 2016| 20 Comments »

 

Inquiring readers: Here’s another delightful contribution from the ever creative Tony Grant. If you can’t get enough of his work and photographs, visit his blog, London Calling, where he shares his images from his many trips all over Great Britain. A little over 200 hundred years ago (December, 2015), Emma was first published. This is the first of a number of articles related to that novel on this blog this year.

Emma, written by Jane Austen between 21st January 1814 and the 29th March 1815, is unique amongst her six published novels because it’s entire setting is one small country town, the fictitious Highbury and Hartfield, located in one county, Surrey. Other places, real and fictitious are mentioned and have roles in the story too but most of those, apart from London, are located in Surrey as well. All Austen’s other novels move between at least two major locations, Bath, London, Lyme Regis and so on. Her two unfinished novels, Sanditon and The Watsons also have one major location each, Sanditon, a fictitious seaside resort of the sort that were being developed in the Georgian period on the south coast and at other coastal places. In the case of The Watsons, it is another novel that starts in Surrey and specifically in and around, a real town this time, Dorking. The Turnpike Road and The White Hart Inn are real locations in and around Dorking. The Watsons was not developed beyond this setting.

view from Box Hill @Tony Grant
Another view from Box Hill @Tony Grant
View of Box Hill @Tony Grant

The places mentioned in Emma that are real include Box Hill, the River Mole, Richmond, Kingston, Weymouth, Cobham and London of course. The fictitious places are Highbury and Hartfield, Donwell Abbey, Rosings and Maple Grove. Randalls, might refer to an actual house called Randalls near Leatherhead not far from Box Hill.

Leatherhead @Tony Grant
18th c. door, Leatherhead, @Tony Grant

Many people think Leatherhead (images above) is the template for Highbury and Hartfield. However, if you ever have the time to travel around Surrey villages and towns, there are similarities between them all. A grand house and estate is often located outside the town. There are a variety of still existing Georgian town houses ranging from those that would have housed well to do middle class businessmen to cottages for the working man and his family. All towns have an ancient church, probably first built in the middle ages, along with a rectory.Many of the rectories, interestingly look Georgian in design, however many of them are much older, probably Tudor in construction, constructed with great oak beams, with Georgian fronts added. All towns have old inns and what were once assembly rooms.

18th C. building Cobham @ Tony Grant
Church yard, Cobham @ Tony Grant
Cobham High Street @Tony Grant
Water Mill, Cobham, @Tony Grant
Vicarage, Cobham, @ Tony Grant

For instance, Cobham is mentioned in Emma. In one scene with Mr Knightly, Emma extolls the virtues of Mr Weston,

“ … ever since his particular kindness last September twelve month in writing that note, at twelve o’clock at night, on purpose to assure me that there was no scarlet fever at Cobham, I have been convinced that there could not be a more feeling heart nor a better man in existence.-“

Cobham is located not far from Leatherhead and Box Hill. I have walked around it often and the little bits of information about Highbury and Hartfield that Austen puts into the novel fit Cobham just as well as Leatherhead or a number of other towns and villages in Surrey. I think Highbury and Hartfield therefore is a sort of generic Surrey county town. It is after all the relationships between the characters that matter in the novel.

Jane Austen gives details describing the miles from Highbury and Hartfield to various places. It is 16 miles from London, 9 miles from Richmond and 7 miles from Box Hill. How more detailed could you be? These coordinates actually give you a spot on the Leatherhead to Kingston Road at a crossroads called, Malden Rushett. There are a couple of Victorian cottages there and nowadays a garden centre. It is mostly still surrounded by fields as it would have been in the early 19th century. The road comes from Dorking just south of Box Hill and passes through Leatherhead on its way to Kingston. It would, without doubt, have been the road that Mr Knightley and Mr Martin travelled along to get to the markets in Kingston. Also Frank Churchill / Weston, would have travelled this way to go to Richmond, which is further north of Kingston on the banks of the River Thames.

Screen Shot 2016-04-09 at 9.57.40 AM

One can see the relation between Kingston Upon Thames and Richmond in this Google map image

Perhaps the mileage Austen gives us for the location of Highbury and Hartbury is all part of her play on words and riddles that permeate Emma. The mileage gives us the impression that this must be a real place that actually exists, although it doesn’t actually exist. Her choice of names real and fictional play games with us too. However, we can start to interpret the words and names she uses. For instance the derivation of, bury, used as a suffix to the name of a town comes from Old English. It means ,burh, or fortified place. A fortified place can be interpreted as defensive and insular. Then we have a “High,” protected place and,” Hart,” which could refer to the,” heart,” but also a hart is a sort of deer. Is Jane referring to the heart of Englishness, the heart of what it means to be a community? Although Emma might be seen as an insular novel, just centered on the people of a generic Surrey town, it also refers to all towns and all communities. We can think about our own social groups and work colleagues and neighbours. I would not be surprised if our immediate associations number a similar number as the community described within the scope of Emma. Jane Austen not only plays with the names of places but also her characters. George Knightly, for instance, might refer to George IV the monarch and the name Knightly to a chivalrous connection. King, country and nobility of the true Englishman was an important concept, especially at the time Jane was writing Emma. It was published in the year that Waterloo was fought and won. It is also interesting to note Franck Churchill asking how much it would take for him to become a “citizen,” of Highbury and Hartfield. This is an oblique reference to France and the enemy the French. He is subtly made into the enemy. There are enough real places referred to in the novel for any visitor to Surrey today to explore and walk the streets and fields Jane Austen herself walked. We know that in 1814, Jane Austen visited her relatives, the Cookes, at Great Bookham and probably visited Box Hill with them. Maybe she decided to place one her major scenes on the hill at that time.

The Thames from Richmond Hill @Tony Grant
Richmond Green @Tony Hill
Houses on top of Richmond Hill @Tony Grant
St. Paul’s see at 10 miles from Richmond @Tony Grant
Relaxing along the Thames @Tony Grant

Richmond (above) in the 18th and 19th century was a place for the well off and the aristocracy as it was in previous centuries and still is today. Nearby was located Kew Palace, where “mad” King George III lived with his family, and set amongst beautiful grounds planted with trees and shrubs brought from various corners of the British Empire. Richmond Green in the centre of Richmond is to this day surrounded by grand houses and a beautiful theatre that originates from Georgian times. Along the Thames near Richmond the river is lined by grand houses and the estates of the aristocracy going back to Stuart times. Frank Churchill and his adopted family are wealthy and this is the place for them.

When Frank Churchill at last arrives in Highbury he meets Emma for the first time.

“Their subjects in general were such as belong to an opening acquaintance. On his side were the enquiries, – “Was she a horse woman? -Pleasant rides? -Pleasant walks? -Had they a large neighbourhood? – Highbury perhaps afforded society enough?-There were several pretty houses in and about it-Balls-had they balls?-Was it a musical society?”

A person who knows Richmond well is aware of the almost cynical comparisons Frank Churchill is making. He appears to be polite but every reader would know then that Highbury could not compare with Richmond.

Kingston upon Thames (above) , further down river from Richmond and about two miles closer to the fictional Highbury than Richmond, was a very different sort of place. It had three markets, a large important cattle market, a central general market selling vegetables, meat, fish and selling general merchandise. There was also a small apple market. Kingston was important as a coaching inn stop. The Castle Inn was the largest and most prestigious inn overlooking the main market area. The inn itself no longer exists but the building occupying its site contains the original Castle Inn staircase constructed in 1537.

Kingston Market17th century staircase Jane probably walked up

Original Castle Inn staircase. Image @Tony Grant

It is a massive carved dark oak construction. Jane probably walked up its creaky steps and in her imagination, Mr Knightley and Mr Martin too. Kingston was the sort of place that Mr Martin and indeed Mr Knightly would visit regularly. The main central market still exists and there are buildings around it which originate from Georgian and much earlier times. The Druids Head pub is the only original 18th century coaching inn still in the market place. The shape and layout of the central market today would be recognized by both Jane Austen, who stopped in Kingston on her way to London often, and also her characters, Mr Martin and Mr Knightley. Austen writes an amusing scene in Emma, when Jane Fairfax is given the opportunity to play the pianoforte that was just delivered and Frank Churchill, Jane Fairfax, and Emma were crammed into Miss Bates’s living room. This crammed indecorous scene creates a comical picture, when Mr Knightley rides past and Miss Bates rushes outside to also invite him in too. He is about to comply with the request, but when he learns about all the others already inside he says in a loud voice, so that everybody can hear

“…….No, not now, I thank you. I could not stay two minutes. I must get on to Kingston as fast as I can.”

It might be the thought of adding to the already crowded interior that put him off, or it might have been the desire to avoid certain people at that time.

Kingston was a frequent place Jane Austen travelled through or stopped at on her way to London from Chawton to stay with her brother Henry. She experienced its atmosphere, its sights and its sounds. In a letter to Cassandra from Henrietta Street, dated Wednesday 15-Thursday 16 September 1813, Jane Austen writes.

“ had a very good journey-Weather and roads excellent- the three first stages for 1s-6d and our only misadventure the being delayed about a quarter of an hour at Kingston for Horses, and being obliged to put up with a p belonging to a Hackney Coach and their coachman which left no room on the barouche box for Lizzy who was to have gone her last stage as she did the first:- consequently we were all 4 within, which was a little crowd;- We arrived at quarter past 4-…”

Leatherhead,is supposed, by some people, to be the template for Highbury and Hartbury. It certainly has some of the features mentioned in Emma but I think also other towns and villages in Surrey have similarities with Highbury and Hartbury too. Its proximity to Box Hill and also the Kingston Road from Dorking does lend it some credence. The part of Surrey in Emma is the Vale of Mickleham, the area between Leatherhead and Dorking, including Box Hill.

Jane Austen describes the view:

“The considerable slope, at nearly the foot of which the Abbey stood, gradually acquired a steeper form beyond its grounds; and at half a mile distant was a bank of considerable abruptness and grandeur, well clothed with wood; and at the bottom of this bank, favourably placed and sheltered, rose the Abbey-Mill Farm, with meadows in front, and the river making a close and handsome curve around it.

It was a sweet view – sweet to the eye and the mind. English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive.”

I have a theory, though. Cobham is mentioned in Emma in a rather unusual way. It is mentioned by Emma when praising,

“that excellent Mr Weston.”

Mr Weston had shown Emma his, “particular kindness last September twelvemonth in writing that note , at twelve o’clock at night, on purpose to assure me that there was no scarlett fever at Cobham.”

There are some strange things about this. Why would he write the note so late at night? Was the note sent during the night? Why was it so important for Emma to know?

A few things occur to me. First, Emma is informed by Mr Weston that there is no scarlett fever at Cobham which means it is alright to go there. Is it alright for my flight of fancy to go there too? I am sure scarlet fever was not a good thing to catch in the 18th century. Jane’s first experience of Southampton, for example, when she was eight years of age attending Mrs Cawley’s school with Cassandra and her cousin Jane Cooper. The children caught an illness from troops landing in the town and Southampton had to be quarantined, so it must be a relief to the surrounding communities that Cobham is free of it but there is no other reference to anybody in the novel going to Cobham or wanting to go there. Its only addition to the story is that it shows Mr Martin’s rather obscure way of being marvellous. Why mention Cobham in this random way? Is this an aside, a joke with the reader, suggesting that Jane Austen used Cobham as the real template for Highbury and Hartfield? If you go to Cobham, which, incidentally, is only about two or three miles north west of Leatherhead and so not far from Boxhill, Kingston, and all the other places mentioned, it has many of the features of Highbury and Hatfield, including a grand manor and estate at Painshill, about one mile from the centre. The River Mole also runs nearby. It is a small village and much more compact than Leatherhead and would suit the closer community that Highbury and Hartfield seems to suggest rather than the larger town of Leatherhead. But that is just my surmise. Again, I must mention my previous observation that Highbury and Hartfield are really a sort of generic English town with features that you could find in most towns and villages in the 18th century. Quite often the same features are recognisable in many such places nowadays too.

The river mole at leatherhead

The River Mole at Leatherhead. Image @Tony Grant

Jane Austen’s knowledge and experience of Surrey is extensive. She would have known may places in Surrey well. Jane Austen visited Great Bookham in 1799 and 1814.  Great Bookham is about a mile south west of Leatherhead and not far from Box Hill. She went there to visit her mother’s relatives, the Reverend Samuel Cooke and his family. He was rector of Cotsford  in Oxfordshire and vicar of Great Bookham. He was married to Cassandra Leigh, Mrs George Austen’s cousin. The Reverend Cooke was Jane Austen’s godfather. It has been suggested that while she stayed at Great Bookham she visted Box Hill and thus got the idea for that important location in Emma.

the-town-of-dorking-below

Town of Dorking from Box Hill. Image @Tony Grant

In her letters to Cassandra, Jane relates many trips she takes from Steventon and later Chawton to London to visit Henry. The journeys she makes are invariably along roads and through places in Surrey. Some other places in Surrey that Jane mentions are Painshill, Epsom, Claremont Park, Dorking, Guildford, Farnham, and the Hogs Back Hill. Dorking is very interesting from the point of view of Janes writing. Her unfinished novel, The Watsons, takes place almost entirely in Dorking. As it does not really feature in Emma I will not elaborate on it.

Jane Austen almost creates an intellectual game in Emma. The names of places suggest other meanings. Donwell, for instance. Does it suggest that Mr Knightley, who has a very patriotic name and suggests a chivalrous and ”knightly” character, has “DONE WELL,”? A very corny joke. Even her first readers in the early 19th century would have groaned at that, I am sure. She mixes real and imaginary places in her setting making all places sound convincing. She gives concrete directions to a place that does not exist, namely Highbury and Hartbury. She apparently relates the story of a small close community in a way that seems specific to them but is really universal in its descriptions of types of people and their interactions. Jane Austen sets up all these dichotomies. She really is playing with our minds in many ways and on different levels.

Sources:

 

 

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Picnic on Box Hill: A July 4th Hiatus

Posted in Emma, jane austen, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen's World, Regency Customs, Regency food, Regency World, tagged , , on July 2, 2011| 5 Comments »

Gentle Readers, I am spending July 4th with my family. We will picnic, eating a variety of collations, both hot and cold, and enjoying time with our extended family, including mothers, fathers, children, nieces and nephews, grandparents and great grandchildren.

Box Hill, view from the train. Image @Tony Grant

Because I am a Jane Austen aficionado, I am reminded of Emma’s picnic on Box Hill, which couldn’t be further from the closeness that my family will feel on the day we celebrate America’s birth.

View from Box Hill, Emma 2009

The wretchedness of a scheme to Box Hill was in Emma’s thoughts all the evening. How it might be considered by the rest of the party, she could not tell. They, in their different homes, and their different ways, might be looking back on it with pleasure; but in her view it was a morning more completely misspent, more totally bare of rational satisfaction at the time, and more to be abhorred in recollection, than any she had ever passed. – Emma, Jane Austen, Chapter 44

No one was quite satisfied with Emma’s planned outing, least of all Miss Bates, Mr. Knightley, and Emma. The Eltons wandered off bored and disappointed, and Miss Fairfax keenly felt the insults that Emma and Frank Churchill hurled her way.

Box Hill, Emma 2009. Fabulous view.

Yet Box Hill was a beautiful location, with a view that wouldn’t quit. It is still a tourist destination, and a place that offers peace and quiet to those who would enjoy its beauty.  Unlike Emma, I am prepared to enjoy my picnic with my family. Happy July 4th, all!

 

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Seen Over the Ether: Box Hill Revisited

Posted in Emma, jane austen, Jane Austen Novels, Jane Austen's World, Regency Life, Regency Period, Regency style, Regency World, tagged , on April 30, 2009| 1 Comment »

picnic-at-box-hill-frank-saw-emma-first-in-march-2

The wretchedness of a scheme to Box Hill was in Emma’s thoughts all the evening. How it might be considered by the rest of the party, she could not tell. They, in their different homes, and their different ways, might be looking back on it with pleasure; but in her view it was a morning more completely misspent, more totally bare of rational satisfaction at the time, and more to be abhorred in recollection, than any she had ever passed. – Emma, Jane Austen, Chapter 44

  • Re-reading Box Hill: Reading the Practice of Reading Everyday Life offers five articles on the topic of Box Hill. How astounding. Click here to enter the site.

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