"Persuasion" - The awakening of Frederick Wentworth

 

'Persuasion' - Jane Austen's tale about the stiflingly dull life of Anne Elliot, who at nineteen gave up her engagement to satisfy the strict and snobbish ideas of her class-obsessed father.

Eight years later, faded and quiet, what future does she have?

The pain of what might have been is made worse when Captain Wentworth returns and she has to see him apparently falling in love with a much younger girl.

But events make Frederick Wentworth realise how much he still values and admires Anne, and suddenly, he realises he still loves her. Only - is it now too late for him?

He pours out his feelings in a hastily scribbled letter, often considered the most romantic letter in all English literature.

“I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W.

I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never.”

― Jane Austen,   Persuasion  

Jane Austen's House at Chawton

Today I paid another visit to Jane Austen's home in Chawton. The village is situated well away from the main road and still has a peaceful old world atmosphere. The road leading to Jane's cottage has not changed much since her time. This row of thatched cottages defines the length and curve of the road.

It was sunny and in all the gardens plants are stretching out green shoots at a miraculous rate. In Jane's garden daffodils and violets are in flower and there is the promise of a fine display of bluebells in another month. New since my last visit is the flowerbed of dye plants. It has ten sections, so ten different plants from which to make dyes for brightening up clothes and ribbons.    

Close to the outbuildings at the back of the house, is a bed of medicinal plants. Looking at these, I respect their virtues but feel a slight shiver at a world without modern medicine. There are also herbs such as rosemary and lavender with their many uses and a very old fig tree.

The various outbuildings served in essential jobs and for storage. The open door leads to the Bakehouse, with its wide chimney and brick oven. It also contains a large copper where clothes and household linen could be washed. The well is right by the door. There is an underground storage room, which would be cool and so provisions like salted pork could be kept there through the winter. [Pork was only eaten when there was an 'r' in the month.]

Coming round the side of the house, there is the main kitchen, a large and airy room, although perhaps when meat was roasting on a turning spit over the open fire the air in there was smoky and little sputters of hot fat made working difficult. This photo was taken on a previous visit, hence the roses.

     In the main kitchen

Inside the main house the rooms are large and the furniture is elegant, although there is only one padded seat - the sofa. The pianoforte is smaller than a modern piano but how essential it was for entertainment. It is easy to imagine the daily life of the family with its household duties. During the evenings as they sat in the drawing room, one of them would read and the others would sew.
The little table on which Jane is supposed to have written her novels, stands by the window in the dining room. It is battered and shabby, yet it is the most respected item in the house, everyone marvelling at it and then at Jane herself, whose existence was constantly bound up in her large family and the daily duties of domestic life, yet her perception of human nature is so profound that the stories she created are loved and admired across the world. That is evident from a glance through the Visitors' Book at Chawton Cottage.

And now, to round off my day, I shall select one of her novels to reread....

All things Jane Austen - A Regency day out at Chawton

On a bright and beautiful September morning I took my French friend down to Chawton. Jane Austen's cottage and garden looked their best in the sunshine. The garden was full of colourful flowers and the peaceful atmosphere helped to capture a sense of what it must have been like to live there two hundred years ago.

You enter through a door surrounded by late-flowering roses, to find the interior full of items that bring Jane vividly before you. Her topaz cross and a delightful blue bead bracelet, her small writing table, the letters and papers concerning her books, the fine needlework she produced, all create a sense of her daily life in this home.

On that day, Chawton House, "the Great House" as the Austen ladies called it, was open to the public. This complemented the impressions gained at the cottage, of life as lived by the gentry in a less hurried era.

                                                 Chawton House - 'The Great House'

Diana demonstrates the language of the fan to her beau

A display of Regency era dancing by the Winchester Dance Group

We were fortunate to see a display of Regency dancing - a waltz and several quadrilles, performed in costume. Even more fortunate, we were able to join in the dancing at the end of the display, but I fear we did not perform with as much skill as our teachers.

Diana, the lady in the white dress in the photo, is using her fan to communicate with Regency gentleman David Caldo. Diana gave us a lesson in 'The language of the Fan'.

The city of Bath

'Mr Allen...was ordered to Bath for the benefit of a gouty constitution.' Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. And so begin the adventures of Catherine Morland in the delightful, smart and lively city of Bath

Bath is a beautiful city, thanks to the harmony of the architecture and the honey coloured local stone. It was always an important place, due to the healing powers of its hot springs, first developed by the Romans. In the Georgian period there was a massive development programme to provide elegant and comfortable public and private buildings.

For Georgian society Bath was THE place to spend several weeks or months in the winter.They came to take the waters for their health but also to enjoy showing off their fine clothes as they walked along the wide pavements or in the Parade Gardens below the Abbey. There were coffee houses, circulating libraries, pleasure gardens and of course the Assembly Rooms, where they could dance, gamble and drink tea.

The truly sick were taken from their beds straight into a sedan chair [the staircases and doorways in Bath are all made wide enough for this service] and taken to the hot bath, which gave relief from rheumatic pain.




Other complaints were treated by drinking a pint of the warm spring water three times a day. No wonder they sought out the amusements and entertainments to have something they could enjoy!

 Several of the characters of In All Honour are in Bath for their health. Another family is there because it was a useful way to prepare the young daughter, Lavinia, for her come-out in London. In Bath she can learn to dance without being too shy, she can join in the morning promenades, the tea parties, the concerts and gain poise and the necessary social skills of polite conversation and exquisite manners so that she will not be mauled in the tougher world of London society.

In addition, there were a number of schools or seminaries in Bath, for the education of young ladies. Sarah and her friend Lizzie spent several years in Miss Howard's Academy in Queen Square. Then as now, the shops were full of smart and enticing goods and the girls enjoyed their Sunday afternoon walk around the town, when they could get a glimpse of these tempting things.