Meet some of our Autumn Guests
Our Roving Reporter, Lady Anne Russell returned to Bath for The Autumn Season – she can never tire of Bath after all – and as she reveals in this month’s Musing, sharing the city’s Austenesque delights with Janeites from across the world proved to be most entertaining.
Well, I am delighted to report that we have had yet more memorable and intriguing guests from all corners of the globe and of widely varying heritage, all attracted by the plethora of events to mark Jane Austen’s 250th birthday.
These included five ladies (plus driver and a guide) in a van – actually a comfortable people-carrier; a remarkably well-travelled family group hailing from San Francisco, California who were knowledgeable, asked many probing questions and were enjoying the holiday of a lifetime in honour of their senior member’s extensive 80th birthday celebrations and a stylish, witty lady whose dry comments as I set the scene while we travelled, made us all laugh….
I had first met them the previous morning when I showed them around Bath, following Jane Austen’s Footsteps and including as many of the key sites as possible. Thy had already been on a Grand Tour (tailored by Strictly Jane Austen Tours) to Oxford and Blenheim Palace, with an overnight stay in Woodstock, thence via various fabulous film locations thought to have inspired Jane’s vision of Mr Darcy’s ancestral home, Pemberley: Lyme Park, Cheshire; Chatsworth, Derbyshire and Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire. (The last is my top contender for Pemberley – a fabled legendary swagger mansion which Jane would certainly have known of and may have visited. That it was the seat of the Earls Fitzwilliam seems – to me, at least – to be beyond coincidence. It has additionally – to the surprise of many American guests – a fascinating and little-known connection to a family tragedy affecting the Kennedy clan. But I digress…) All of this was interspersed with stays in interesting and historic hotels – including the Rutland Arms, Bakewell, whose website quotes a tentative connection to Jane Austen: ‘some believe she stayed here in 1811 and drew inspiration from the surroundings for Pride and Prejudice.’ At any rate, they have a Jane Austen Room there which I hope to occupy soon, being well acquainted with those parts….
The ladies were delighted with our day trip to Hampshire, especially St Nicholas, Steventon, with its family graves, monuments and facsimile records of the young Jane Austen’s fake marriage entries pledging herself to hilariously-contrasting, fictional, grooms, which Marilyn, the enthusiastic, knowledgeable and welcoming Church Warden, put before us. There was laughter all round as we speculated on what Revd Austen would have thought. We generally agreed that he might have immediately affected annoyance – ‘You naughty girl; these are legal documents!’ -at the (admittedly, creative) defacements and then privately, in the kitchen, perhaps, laughed heartily with Mrs Austen about his clever daughter.
We all enjoyed The Jane Austen House Museum, a beautiful venue with clear indications of where Jane wrote, received visitors, slept and enjoyed her days. The ‘Donkey Cart’ – made by a local craftsman – and which she habitually used after her health began to fail – is surprisingly elegant; more an attempt at a stylish conveyance than the rustic rough-hewn bashed-together assemblage that I had imagined !
Of course, there was also Chawton House – ‘The Great House’, or ‘Edward’s Party House’ as that was how he seemed to have regarded it while hosting acquaintance. He rarely slept there, retreating instead to the nearby – and more modest – Dower House. Although Jane never lived at Chawton House– contrary to popular imagination – she frequently visited and her favourite reading nook off the long gallery (which I would have claimed if I’d ever been able to stay) is easy to spot, hemmed in by ancient wood panelling with glorious light-filled views over the park. Chawton is a place where Jane – who took her familial duties seriously – appeared as doting aunt to her numerous nieces and nephews, a role which gave her great joy.
I also met another gleeful party of ladies (also five in number) who were celebrating their matriarch’s 80th birthday. We had a similarly interesting time, especially at St Nicholas, Chawton, where Mrs Austen and Jane’s beloved sister, Cassandra – who both outlived Jane – are buried under modest slabs (their chancel arch-mounted board monuments are apparently- but hopefully temporarily – missing). An attractive, elegant bronze plinth-mounted statuette of Jane, pelisse billowing in the wind, adorns the churchyard.
After that, it was Winchester, where our well-informed driver dropped us off at 8 College Street – the house where Jane died – from which we traced the sad route of her funeral procession through College Close to Winchester Cathedral; Jane’s final resting place. Our guests were shocked to discover that in those days women were not allowed to attend funerals as it was assumed that ‘their finer emotions’ would distract from the serious business of a relative’s passing.
It still remains a mystery as to how Jane came to be buried in such august surroundings; she was unknown as a writer – except in the close family or as an open secret in her favourite brother Henry’s court circles – since the first books to be published under her own name, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published shortly after her death in 1818. The inscription on her grave refers only to her personal qualities, although a 1969 publication by Winchester Canon Residentiary, Frederick Bussby claims that Jane – who admired the Cathedral – had expressed to the Dean and Chapter, a wish to be buried there. Further research is required….
Sometime before this, a group of distinguished representatives from a European Tourism Office visited in search of a ‘taster/overview’ of Bath, to include a discussion of The Roman Baths/Aquae Sulis and Bath stone, used from the eighteenth-century onwards. In Abbey Churchyard we talked about what Jane Austen would have recognised and what – given the 1869/1871 onwards rediscovery of The Roman Baths – she could not have had any knowledge of. It seems that the party enjoyed my summary as I was presented with a lucky carved souvenir, complete with dangling bell called Ermintrude who now sits in prime position on top of my writing repository.
I recall, too, that in late September I met a solo guest beneath the Edward VII Peace Angel in Parade Gardens. This lady – from Bavaria – was enjoying ‘a treat/tour birthday present from her doting husband’, so first, there was some discussion of ‘Mad King Ludwig’s’ astonishingly theatrical castles which led us neatly to talk of Beckford, the sublime; the Gothic and Gothick (yes, there is a difference, which I will explain in a future Musing!) with brief reference to his sensational Fonthill Abbey, out on a ridge in Salisbury Plain, and the carefully-stage-managed visit of Lord Nelson and Emma Hamilton, when the place wasn’t even finished. After all that, we embarked on our official tour….
As the Winter Season well and truly began, a great tranche of guests also arrived for a massive celebration emanating from The Gainsborough Hotel. This six-day extravaganza included walks and talks; embroidery and dance workshops; dedicated visits to Chawton, Winchester and the picturesque, film-friendly Lacock, as well as an entertaining number of early-evening question and answer ‘Meet the Guides’ sessions. And – of course! – the final farewell, and always memorable, Celebratory Dinner. None of which passed without interesting incident! But I am discreet…
I cannot wait to see who spring brings to Bath and its environs in search of an Austenesque adventure and look forward to sharing the fun with you in a future Musing.
