Introduction Talk in English

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to the Jane Austen Centre where we celebrate Miss Austen’s time in the city of Bath both as a visitor and as a resident. My name is ________ from the book ______ . I would like to start your visit with a brief introductory talk about Jane’s life and family lasting approximately 15 minutes. Afterwards we shall head down to our main exhibition. If you have any questions, I will be available in the exhibition throughout your visit.

Jane Austen was born on the 16th of December in 1775. Her home was on a working farm in Steventon near Basingstoke in the beautiful county of Hampshire which hugely influenced Jane’s writing.

Jane’s father, the Reverend George Austen, was a country clergyman who farmed 200 acres of land within the parish. He was also headmaster of his own private boarding school for sons of gentlemen, preparing them for entry to Oxford, which meant that Jane grew up surrounded by boys.

Rev. Austen had a library of over 500 books which his children had unlimited access to and they were actively encouraged to read a diverse range of subjects. When Jane was 21 her father wrote to publishers in London in an attempt to get her work published. To Jane, her father was her biggest intellectual supporter. He encouraged her writing talent despite the prejudices against female writers in society at the time.

Jane’s mother, Mrs Cassandra Austen, was a very robust, lively and practical minded lady who was also renowned for her good looks(!). She was an intelligent, sociable woman and was especially proud of her aristocratic nose and her quick wit. Indeed, she was known as the poet of the family. As well as raising her own 8 children, and caring for her husband’s pupils, she ran the dairy and poultry yard on top of her everyday household duties; including brewing the family beer.

James, the eldest, was in a sense the first professional writer in the family. After being educated at home by his father, he then became a scholar and at 14 went to St John’s College in Oxford to study for a career in the Church. During his studies he published a weekly magazine called ‘The Loiterer’ which ran for 60 issues. James did not pursue his writing, but allegedly the young Jane had a letter published in ‘The Loiterer’, using the pseudonym of ‘Sophia Sentiment’.

As you can see, we have no portrait for George, and that is because he suffered from an unknown mental or physical disability. It is strongly believed that one aspect of his illness was that he was deaf. Apparently, it was tradition in the Austen family to learn how to speak in sign language (or finger speak as they would have called it). George did not grow up with the rest of the family, he was cared for locally under supervision which was funded by his parents.

Speaking of gentlemen, Edward Austen (later Edward Knight) is featured here in a very luxurious looking portrait. This should hint at the fact that he was wealthy, although his wealth did not come from the Austen family. When Edward was 16, Rev. Austen’s second cousin, Thomas Knight and his wife Catherine, requested to adopt Edward to be their son and eventual heir. They had been so fond of him that when he was 12 years old they took him on their wedding tour! The Knights were unable to have a child of their own, but they needed an heir as they possessed a large fortune and estates in Hampshire and Kent. It is notable that in ‘Emma’ and ‘Mansfield Park’ there are characters like Frank Churchill and Fanny Price, who also get taken in by wealthy relations.

Henry is often referred to as Jane’s favourite brother and he is a very important one too – for it was Henry who was responsible for the publishing of Jane’s novels. Henry was renowned for his brilliant conversation and quick wit – adapted versions of his speeches or arguments may have been put into the mouths of Jane's characters like Henry Tilney from Northanger Abbey.

During the early 1800s Henry was living and working in London with his own independent banking business. It was Henry who wrote the first 'Biographical Notice of the Author' and named his sister as the writer of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Mansfield Park and in the posthumous publication of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in 1818. These two novels set in Bath were printed together in a 4 volume set after Austen’s death. During Austen’s lifetime her name never appeared in print; in Sense and Sensibility, the first to be published, it said it was written By a Lady!

Now for Cassandra. She was Jane’s only sister and her closest friend and companion. They shared a bedroom for most of their lives and were known to dress very alike! Like Jane, Cassandra never married, despite their parent’s numerous efforts to snag them husbands (particularly when they were in Bath), but also like Jane, Cassandra was once engaged. Jane, however, was engaged for just one night. She was proposed to one evening, slept on it and the next day announced she had changed her mind. It seems she did not love the man enough to marry him. Cassandra's engagement to Rev. Thomas Fowle on the other hand would last for five years. Before they could afford to marry, Thomas went to the West Indies to serve as a military chaplain, but upon his landing in San Domingo, he died from yellow fever. Cassandra remained a spinster having sworn at the age of 25 that she would never marry, because beyond the age of 25, ladies were considered to be middle aged; on the shelf, as it were.

When the sisters were not together they wrote to each other on a daily basis and what remains of those letters has been the main source of information for Jane Austen – although sadly Cassandra destroyed most of the letters in her possession following Jane's death. The relationship between the Austen sisters is very likely reflected in the sisterly relationships of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet from Pride and Prejudice and Elinor and Marianne in Sense and Sensibility.

Francis and Charles were both educated and trained by the navy. They both had very impressive careers, serving as officers in the Napoleonic Wars. Francis was one of Lord Nelson's Captains and both brothers exceeded to the rank of Admiral. It is clear that they inspired the naval characters in Jane's novels. In Mansfield Park for Fanny Price's birthday she receives an amber cross necklace from her Naval brother William. This is a true gesture from Jane's life, as both Jane and Cassandra received topaz crosses from their brother Charles who bought the necklaces with prize money won in service to the Navy.

At the age of 15 Jane wrote The History of England by a Partial, Prejudiced and Ignorant Historian. This was an early example of her skill in writing parody with her own satirical versions of the history of the Kings and Queens of England. The illustrations inside were also painted by Cassandra in watercolours at the time. This is available in our Gift Shop if you would like to take a closer look.

When Jane was 20, she began drafting her novels, and by the time she was 23 she had drafts for Sense and Sensibility (first called Elinor and Marianne) and Pride and Prejudice (originally named First Impressions). The publishers in London were not interested. Gothic literature was vastly more fashionable at this time and so Jane wrote Northanger Abbey (under the title Susan) as a satire of the popular gothic novels.

Most of Jane’s writing was started whilst living in Hampshire, but she also worked on pieces in Bath as the city was a massive social phenomenon. Jane was always a keen observer of people and there was a lot of inspiration to be found here for her social satire, but the city would have also had many distractions and she was unable to focus on her writing as much here as when she was in the countryside. Jane’s father passed away in Bath in 1805 and is buried at St. Swithin’s church not half a mile from here. His death left his wife and daughters with very little money and so for four years they were forced to live in very poor apartments as there was not enough money to give them a house of their own; or so it would seem. In 1809, Chawton cottage was given to the ladies by Edward. The house was part of his inherited Hampshire estate, however, he could have offered them this property much sooner. There were apparently some objections on his wife’s side of the family that he should offer his mother and sisters much help; this is remarkably similar to Mr and Mrs Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility.

Jane's death

Sadly, Jane was never to see her two Bath novels published, because in 1816 she became seriously ill. The truth about Jane’s illness remains a mystery. There have been various theories including Addison’s disease and Cancer.

Jane was moved to Winchester by Henry and Cassandra in spring 1817 for better medical treatment. She had started a new novel, Sanditon, before she became ill and unfortunately this was abandoned. Jane was at home at Chawton in Hampshire when she wrote her will on 27th April 1817. The scan of which is available through the National Archives. At her death, her total assets were valued at under £800. In her will, she left nearly everything to her ‘Dearest sister’, Cassandra, who nursed Jane through illness. On the 18th of July 1817 Jane passed away peacefully in her sister’s arms, at the age of 41. She was laid to rest at Winchester Cathedral. Henry organised the obituary notice for the local newspaper – this was the first time that Jane was identified as the author of her novels. After her death, Cassandra wrote in a letter: “She was the sun of my life. The guilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow. I had not a thought concealed from her and it is as if I have lost a part of myself.”

Portraits

There have been many debates over the years as to which portraits of Jane are true and which are not. What Jane Austen looked like is still speculated today.

The original for this portrait can be found at the National Portrait Gallery in London and is about half the size of a small postcard. It is a watercolour sketch of Jane around the age of 35 and was done by her sister Cassandra. To date this is the only life likeness that we have for definite. Unfortunately it’s not finished. It was the opinion of the Austen family that this was not a flattering likeness of Jane. She was always described as a handsome lady: tall and slender with natural curls about the face. Even her neighbours in Bath described the Austen girls as handsome. One of her nieces claimed that this portrait was so hideously unlike her Aunt so Cassandra was absolutely forbidden to finish it.
 


A stipple engraving of Jane found in A Memoir of Jane Austen published by her first nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh in 1870. This was not done from life but it is an adaptation of the watercolour sketch by Cassandra.

This is the portrait that was chosen by the Bank of England to appear on the £10 note as of 2017 when we will recognise the 200th Anniversary since the death of Jane Austen. A very special edition of which we have later in the Exhibition.

This portrait is not helpful in terms of an actual likeness given that it is painted from the back. We do know that the original is in the possession of a family descendant living in the UK. It was painted by Cassandra in 1804 so the Austens would have been residents of Bath at the time but as they took so many trips outside of the city to the country and the seaside, it is difficult to determine the exact location of this painting.



The silhouette is an image that we see repeated for the author a lot. It was originally found pasted into a copy of Mansfield Park. It very well could be of her but some historians argue that, as Jane was described as slender, this could be too ‘busty’ to be her. It does read in French at the top ‘l’aimable Jane’ which translates to the amiable Jane or lovely Jane. This gives us reason to believe that it could have been done by her cousin Eliza de Feuillide who was French by marriage. She was frequently staying with the Austen family in Hampshire after her husband, the Comte de Feuillide, was guillotined in Paris during the French revolution.

The Rice Portrait. Rice is the name of the family that discovered the original. It is supposedly of Jane when she was 13 years old and would have been staying with her great Uncle Francis on her father’s side. He was a wealthy man which explains how this portrait could have been commissioned. The artist is believed to have been Ozias Humphries, who may have also done the portrait of Edward; art historians note how the cane that he is holding is in the same position as Jane’s parasol. Fashion historians however, argue that the type of dress that she is wearing could not have been worn by children until 1805 when Jane would have been 30. There are family portraits in existence, separate to the Austens, dated from the 1780s and they feature young girls wearing a similar dress.



This portrait was discovered and purchased in auction by Paula Byrne, a Jane Austen biographer who wrote The Real Jane Austen. She worked alongside the BBC who made a documentary about it in 2011. It is supposedly of Jane on one of her visits with Henry in London with a view of St Margaret’s Church at the edge of Westminster Abbey – was possibly done between 1813 – 1815, when Jane would have been 38-40 years old. In all of Jane’s written correspondence at the time with the family, no one makes any mention of her having a portrait done. It’s reasonable to assume that given she was only staying with Henry, she would have been writing a lot of letters especially to Cassandra. Unfortunately after Jane died Cassandra burnt most of the letters in her possession. It is possible that this is an imagining or fan art of Jane as opposed to drawn from life.

Thank you all very much for listening. I hope you have enjoyed this introductory presentation. If you would like to follow meI will now lead you all down to the exhibition. After my colleague gives you a brief talk in our portrait tunnel there is a film to enjoy, Regency recipe biscuits to taste, perfumes to smell, costumes to dress up in, a quill and ink room in which to try your letter writing and our world famous Jane Austen waxwork. Please remember to take photos and feel free to ask questions.


Some facts about the Waxwork of Jane Austen



The Jane Austen waxwork statue is exclusive to the Jane Austen Centre and was unveiled in Bath for the first time in 2014.
No statue like this had ever been attempted and she has never been featured in any Madame Tussauds wax museums as her actual likeness is still speculated and debated over.

We don’t say that this is absolutely what she looked like but we think it is as close as we are ever going to get. Forensic artist Melissa Dring who trained in Washington with the FBI, was a consult in the creation of the statue as she did her own portrait of Jane Back in 2002 (right). This was her take on the author in which she captures a little more of her personality. Her sources were the unfinished portrait by Cassandra, the stipple engraving from 1870, the written descriptions by Jane’s contemporaries and also looking at the other members of her family to find the facial features that were recurrent in each of them, e.g. the nose.

The statue is representative of Jane at an age when she would have been living in Bath (25-30 years old). The dress was made by costume designer Andrea Galer who also made costumes for films adaptations of Mansfield Park and Persuasion. The hair and colourist was Nell Clark who previously worked with Madame Tussauds and also made the statue which stands outside the Centre entrance.