London Introduction Talk English

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to the Jane Austen Experience where we celebrate Miss Austen’s legacy and her time as a visitor in the city of London. 

My name is ________ from the book ______. 

I would like to begin your visit with a brief introductory talk about Jane’s life and family, lasting approximately 12 minutes, before heading down to our main exhibition. If you have any questions, I will be available throughout your visit. 

Although Jane spent much of her life living in the countryside, and a very important 5 years in Bath, London loomed large in her imagination and her novels. Through visits to family, particularly her brother Henry, Jane experienced the capital as a place of energy, opportunity, and social performance. London appears repeatedly in her fiction as the centre of fashion, money, and reputation — a place where characters come to shop, to be seen, to flirt, and, occasionally, to make very bad decisions. Scenes set in London feature prominently in novels such as Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion, where the city offers excitement and temptation, but also moral testing. 

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 clergyman who farmed 200 acres of land within the parish. He was also headmaster of his own private boarding school for sons of gentleman, 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. 

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 Kings and Queens of England. The illustrations inside were also painted by Cassandra in

watercolours at the time. This book is 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 & Prejudice (originally named First Impressions). When Jane was 21 her father wrote to publishers in London in an attempt to get her work printed. The publishers were not interested. Gothic literature was vastly more fashionable at this time and so Jane wrote Northanger Abbey (under the title Lady Susan) as a satire of the popular gothic novels. 

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 prepare 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 ‘Sophia Sentiment’. 

As you can see, we have no known portrait of George Austen, Jane’s second eldest brother. This is not unusual for a private individual of his time, but George’s life remains particularly obscure. George lived with a lifelong disability, the nature of which is unknown. It is also strongly believed that he may have been deaf. Apparently, it was tradition in the Austen family to learn how to speak in a form of sign language (or ‘finger speak’ as they called it). George was cared for locally under supervision which was funded by his parents. This was not uncommon in the late 18th century for families who could afford dedicated care. Although George does not appear frequently in surviving family correspondence, the records that do exist indicate that he was not abandoned nor forgotten but provided for throughout his life. 

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 15, he was adopted by his father’s wealthy second cousin, Thomas Knight, and his wife Catherine. They had been so fond of him that when he was 12 years old they took him on their wedding tour! The Knights had no surviving children of their own, but they needed an heir as they possessed a large fortune and estates in Hampshire and Kent. In 1783 they formally adopted Edward and, as a condition of his inheritance, he

changed his name to Edward Knight in 1812. 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 Henry played a central role in bringing Jane’s novels to the public, acting as her literary agent and champion. Henry was renowned for his brilliant conversation and quick wit – adapted versions of his arguments or turns of phrase may have found their way into Jane’s novels. It is no coincidence that characters such as Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey share his energy, intelligence, and love of a lively debate. 

During the early 1800s Henry lived in London and had his own independent banking business. It was Henry who wrote the first 'Biographical Notice of the Author', finally naming his sister as the author of Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park, and in the two novels printed in 1818, after Austen’s death - Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. During Jane’s lifetime she never got to see her name in print. When Sense and Sensibility was first published, it simply said it was written “By a Lady”. 

Without Henry’s London connections, confidence, and belief in Jane’s unique ability, it is quite possible that Jane’s novels might never have reached an audience at all. 

Now for Cassandra, Jane’s only sister and her closest friend. The two sisters shared a bedroom for much of their lives and were often dressed so alike that visitors sometimes struggled to tell them apart. Cassandra was Jane’s confidante, informal editor, and emotional anchor. Like Jane, Cassandra never married, despite the family’s repeated and hopeful efforts to see both daughters suitably settled. And like Jane, Cassandra was once engaged. Jane’s engagement, to Harris Bigg-Wither, is famous for lasting just one night. She accepted his proposal in the evening, slept on it, and by breakfast had decided 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. Tragically, upon his landing in San Domingo, he died from yellow fever. Cassandra remained a spinster having apparently 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 following Jane’s death Cassandra destroyed most of the letters in her possession. The reason for this remains a mystery. The relationship between the Austen sisters is very likely reflected in the sisterly relationships of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet from Pride and Prejudice, and with Elinor and Marianne Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility. 

London would play an important role in Cassandra’s later life. She spent long periods staying with her brother Henry in the capital, and with Edward at his London house. 

Francis and Charles both had very impressive careers in the Navy, 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 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 with the Royal Navy. 

Jane’s father passed away in Bath in 1805 and is buried at St. Swithin’s church, not half a mile from the Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street. His death left his wife and daughters with very little money and so they were forced to live in poor apartments as there was not enough 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. 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. 

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 last will and testament on 27th April 1817. 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 age 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.” 

London in Jane’s novels is vast, anonymous, and slightly dangerous. It is in London that Lydia Bennet runs away with Wickham, that Maria Bertram’s scandal unfolds, and where fortunes can be gained, lost, or their exaggeration exposed. Jane never lived permanently in the capital, but through her connections and her many visits here, she understood it well enough to portray it as the beating heart of Regency society – dazzling, distracting, and not always to be trusted. 

Thank you all very much for listening. If you would like to follow me, I will now lead you all down to the exhibition. There are costumes to dress up in, Regency recipe biscuits to taste, perfumes to smell, 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.