As a change from a straight walking holiday I decided to do something different – although still with hf holidays. I chose a Leisure Break from the Heritage section on “Jane Austen – Life and times”. This was a good excuse to re-read all six of her major novels. I spent the previous few months doing this, fairly slowly and saw and understood quite a few things that I hadn’t done earlier.
On arriving at Abingworth Hall, I found a pack of information on the bed. This included a quiz and a booklet for each day including readings relevant to where we were going. After the usual cream tea and briefing about the house there was time for a short guided walk and then dinner before we had a talk explaining what we would be doing in the next 2 days.
After breakfast and collecting lunch we had to be on the coach by 9.30 for our fist day.
We headed first for Chawton and the cottage where Jane Austen wrote or re-wrote her major novels.
We had some time there to look round and although there have been alterations it was interesting to see the size of the rooms where she lived and slept (sharing a small bedroom with her sister). I especially liked seeing and touching the table where she wrote and seeing the amber cross that a sailor brother brought back for her – using some prize money c.f. William bringing Fanny a topaz cross in Mansfield Park.
Sadly we did not have enough time, so I couldn’t spend as long as I would have liked or explore the gardens properly.
We then went on to Steventon where she was born and her father was rector. The rectory was pulled down and all that is left is a field, but there is a steepish bank behind where the rectory was, so maybe Jane used to roll down that as a child, like Catherine Morland (Northanger Abbey)?
She would have worshipped at the church, but I believe this has also been altered, with the steeple an addition since Jane’s day.
We then went on to Oakley Hall, where we had cups of tea or coffee as it is now a hotel. In Jane Austen’s time it was the home of the Bramston family, friends of the Austens. Jane apparently walked there often and she and her sister Cassandra were often invited to share the Bramston’s carriage when invited to balls. She also enjoyed dancing at Oakley Hall.
One of the other places where she was invited was Deane House, then owned by the Harwood family who were also friends of the Austen family. She danced there with Tom Lefroy, a young man who was called home to Ireland by his parents as they feared an engagement – neither Jane or Tom had enough money for that to be a realistic prospect in those days!
Tom was staying with his uncle, the Rev. George Lefroy and his wife Anne, at nearby Ashe Rectory – another place where there were private balls which Jane and her sister attended. Mrs Lefroy was apparently a close friend of Jane’s, even though Mrs Lefroy was over 30 years older – maybe a model for Lady Russell (Persuasion)?
Having visited all these places, we drove to Winchester, passing through Overton (Jane was sent to a wet nurse there as an infant) and Whitchurch (the Austen family did shopping there).
In Winchester we went to the Cathedral to see the tomb and memorial window.
Some of us also went on to see the house where Jane and her sister stayed when Jane was very ill and being treated by the doctors. She died there.
There was again not much time in Winchester, before we had to get the coach back to Abingworth Hall.
After dinner our group leader gave an illustrated talk: “Jane Austen’s Shin Bone – 10 facts about Jane Austen”. The illusion comes from a quote from Mark Twain – “Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone”. It was fairly amusing, as you might guess from the title!
The second day, Sunday, we again had to be on the coach by 9.30.
We initially drove to Westhumble to see the house where Fanny Burney lived. Jane Austen was supposed to enjoy her books, so that was the link – too tenuous for most of us! We then drove on to Leatherhead to see Thorncroft Manor – now used as business premises. This was possibly the model for Hartfield in “Emma”. Jane Austen is supposed to have told her nephew that Leatherhead was the model for Highbury, but our leader was suggesting Great Bookham instead. Leatherhead has changed so much it is hard to see it, but it is possible if I look back 50 or so years as I knew it then.
We then drove up to Box Hill, as that was the setting for a scene in “Emma”. As I know it fairly well, I did my own thing, which was mostly do “The Hill Top Stroll”. This took me passed Peter Labilliere’s grave (he insisted on being buried head downwards), to the top of the Burford Spur, up which Victorian tourists walked to visit Box Hill.
Then on to the Old Fort, apparently built in the late 1880s as one of 13 supply centres for tools and ammunition storage in case of invasion by the French. I don’t remember seeing it before.
I then went back to the view point and on a bit for a quick and early lunch – we were leaving at 12.00!
We drove on to Great Bookham, to the church, as Jane Austen’s godfather was the rector there and so it was somewhere she visited fairly often.
The rectory from Jane’s time has been pulled down, I believe.
Our leader’s theory that Great Bookham was the model for Highbury is based on of The Crown there, which is the name of the Inn in “Emma”.
We then drove on to Loseley Park, as the BBC used it to film parts of Sense and Sensibility (Barton Park) and Emma (Donwell Abbey).
We were provided with tea and excellent cakes there and had time to admire the gardens. The rose garden was probably nearly at its best and the scent was amazing.
Our final stop was at Chawton House, where Jane Austen’s brother Edward Knight had one of his homes. He had been adopted by the wealthy Knight family as they had no children. It is now a library for women’s literature, I believe. We had the chance to look round and see some of the places where Jane and her sister would have been when visiting their brother when he was staying there.
It was surprising to see how short the “Long Gallery” was, especially as this is where women would have taken their exercise in bad weather. Apparently women were not supposed to take much exercise! Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice) walking to visit her sister would (probably) have been unusual for someone of her class, hence the comments of Bingley’s sisters?
It was then time to drive back to Abingworth Hall where, after dinner, we were told the answers to the quiz.
I got most right, left out a few and got a couple wrong! The leader had got one of the questions wrong and, looking it up on the internet and in the novels when I got home, gave two incorrect answers! However I did better than most people, many of whom had not attempted any of it. I must admit I enjoyed the challenge, though. Our names were all then put in a hat and one drawn out to win “Jane Austen’s Ring”! It was my name that came out – so I won the ring – or rather a fridge magnet with a picture of it.
So was it a good holiday? Yes, I enjoyed it and the scope it gave for my imagination. Also seeing the links between Jane Austen’s life and some of the things she wrote in her novels.