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Jane Austen & her Gardens

This web page functions as the appendix to Chapter 3.

Ch3/41: Jane Austen enjoyed the gardens where she resided. At the rectory at Steventon, they had a large size garden.

They left Steventon in May 1801.
 

There are some descriptions of the garden in Jane Austen: A Family Record:

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Behind, on the sunny side of the house, was an enclosed garden bounded by a straight row of spruce firs, and terrace walk of turf. [...] At the other end of the terrace a door in the garden wall opened to a lane that climbed the hill, and led through field or hedgerow to the Church...

[...] The walls of this inner garden were covered with cherry and other fruit trees. on the west side was a garden tool house. On the south a door communicated with the back yard - not far from the granary - another door opened into the larger garden, in the east wall, I think. I remember this sunny cucumber garden well - its frames, and also its abundance of pot-herbs, marigolds, etc. - Oh! we never saw the like again.

      The lower bow window, looking so cheerfully into the sunny garden, up the middle grass walk bordered with strawberry beds, to the sundial, belonged to my Grand Father's study;...

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Source: Austen-Leigh, Austen-Leigh, and Le Faye, Jane Austen: A Family Record, p. 18

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Ch3/42: When she and Cassandra were sent to Mrs La Tournelle's school in Reading in the spring of 1785, the girls enjoyed the Abbey School's garden. They were here until the winter of 1786. 

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In Jane Austen: A Family Record (p. 47) it says about the school:

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The Abbey School had been in existence for some considerable number of years, and was by now renowned throughout the south of England as a place where the daughters of the gentry and professional classes could 'be sent to be out of the way, and scramble themselves into a little education, without any danger of coming back prodigies'.

[...] The other part of the school occupied a large brick house immediately adjoining the eastern side of the gateway; this house had a 'beautiful old-fashioned garden, where the children played under tall trees in hot summer evenings', and an embankment at the bottom of the garden provided a viewpoint from which they could look down upon the romantic ruins of the rest of the Abbey.

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The Abbey School - Constance Hill: Jane Austen - her Homes and her Friends p.36

Source: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/hill/austen/homes04.html

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By John Preston Neale. Image extracted from p.62 of vol. 2 of Views of the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Neale%281826%29_p3.062_-_Godmersham_Park%2C_Kent.jpg

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Ch3/43: The vast grounds belonging to Godmersham Park offered Edward Knight's guests stunning views and the possibility for long walks. Godmersham Park also contain an extensive kitchen garden.

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According to Nigel Nicolson in Godmersham Park, Kent, (p. 7) Austen and her sister Cassandra were frequent visitors here between 1798 and 1813, and Austen wrote many of her surviving letters to and from the house when she and Cassandra were staying here separately.

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We know that she enjoyed strawberries here as she writes from Godmersham Park to Cassandra in Southampton in Letter 53 (DLF; p. 136) on 20st-22nd June 1808: ‘I want to hear of your gathering Strawberries, we have had them three times here.’

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Godmersham Park. Photo by WishVintage.

Source: https://wishvintage.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/img_2147.jpg

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Ch3/44: From the end of May 1801 Reverend George Austen with wife and daughters leased No. 4 Sydney Place in Bath, as Mr Austen had decided to retire, leaving the rectory in Steventon to his son, James and his wife, Mary. However, when Mr Austen dies on the 21st January 1805, it soon becomes clear that this house is too expensive for those left behind.

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Source: p. xx in Jane Austen: A Family Record.

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4 Sydney Place Bath - satelite Google Ma

No. 4 Sydney Place, Bath.
In this extraordinary day and age it is possible to on the other side of an ocean and locate buildings and streets and create photos via, for example, Google Maps.

Source: https://www.google.dk/maps

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Ch3/45: When Mr Austen died on the 21st January 1805, it became clear that this house was too expensive for the women and they moved to No. 25 Gay Street, Bath, on the 25th March 1805.

Soon after this, on the 16th April, Mrs Lloyd died, and Martha moved in with Mrs Austen, Cassandra and Jane Austen.

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On the 2nd July 1806, Mrs Austen, with her daughters and Martha Lloyd, left Bath for the last time to the great relief of both Cassandra and Austen. 

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Source: pp. xx and 137 in Jane Austen: A Family Record.

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No. 25 Gay Street, Bath.
In this extraordinary day and age it is possible to view and locate buildings and streets on the other side of an ocean and create photos via, for example, Google Maps.

Source: https://www.google.dk/maps

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Ch3/46: In July 1806, Mrs Austen, with her daughters and Martha Lloyd, left Bath for the last time, and their first stop was Clifton in Bristol, but it was only a short stay. From here they went to Adlestrop Rectory, the home of Mrs Austen's cousin Reverend Thomas Leigh. However, they did not stay long here either, as they were to go with Mr Leigh, his sister Elizabeth, his lawyer Mr Joseph Hill and the rest of the party to Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire. The main reason for this next move was that the last of the Leighs of the Stoneleigh branch, the Hon. Mary Leigh, had just died, and it was now a race to take possession of the Abbey before any other male descendant. 

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Source: p. 138 in Jane Austen: A Family Record.

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Without doubt, this majestic abbey must have had a fantastic kitchen garden, and actually, Mrs  Austen writes the following to her daughter-in-law Mary:

STONELEIGH ABBEY, August 13, 1806.

MY DEAR MARY, - […] We walk a good deal, for the woods are impenetrable to the sun, even in the middle of an August day. I do not fail to spend some part of every day in the kitchen garden, where the quantity of small fruit exceeds anything you can form an idea of. This large family, with the assistance of a great many blackbirds and thrushes, cannot prevent it from rotting on the trees. The gardens contain four acres and a half.

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Source:  Hill, Hill: Jane Austen (p.163).

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Stoneleigh Abbey, close to Kenilworth, Coventry and Warwick.

Source: http://www.mahirs.com/venues/stoneleigh-abbey/

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Stoneleigh Abbey, close to Kenilworth, Coventry and Warwick.

Source: https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/tag/stoneleigh-abbey/

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Ch3/47: According to Jane Austen in Southampton  (p.4) by R.A. Austen-Leigh, it was on October 10, 1806, as we learn from Mrs James Austen's diary, that Jane Austen, with her sister Cassandra, with her mother Mrs (George) Austen, with her brother Capt. Frank Austen, R.N . , now on half-pay, and his recently married wife Mary née Gibson, together with Martha Lloyd, the sister of Mrs James Austen, left Steventon and arrived in Southampton, where with occasional absences, most of them were to remain for two and a half years, that is until early in April 1809.

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After the death of Reverend George Austen in Bath, their brothers had tried to financially support their mother and sisters, but Bath was much too costly a place to stay. After a year or so, Frank announced he was to marry and suggested that his mother and sisters (and Martha) share a house with him and his new wife in Southampton. This move would enable Frank to be close to be close to the naval base in Portsmouth, while newly-wed Mary would have company while Frank was at sea. They decided on a house in 3 Castle Square, in Southampton; in Austen's letters she writes about their new garden and their plans for improving it. They stayed here from March 1807 until they left Southampton in April 1809. Number 3 where the Austens lived is no longer standing, but the site is believed to be approximately where a pub called The Juniper Berry has been built.

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In Letter 50 (8th-9th February 1807; p.124) Austen writes to Cassandra:

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Our Garden is putting in order, by a Man who bears a remarkably good Character, has a very fine complexion & asks something less that the first. The Shrubs which border the gravel walk he says are only sweetbriar & roses, & the latter of an indifferent sort;—we mean to get a few of a better kind therefore, & at my own particular desire he procures us some Syringas. I could not do without a Syringa, for the sake of Cowper’s Line.—We talk also of a Laburnum.—The Border under the Terrace Wall, is clearing away to receive Currants & Gooseberry Bushes, & a spot is found very proper for Raspberries.

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In Letter 51, she adds:

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We hear that we are envied our House by many people, & that the Garden is the best in the Town. (20st-22nd February 1807; p.128).

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There is a third reference to their garden in Castle Square in Letter 56 (1st-2nd October; p.146)

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Mr Choles is gone to drive a Cow to Brentford, & his place is supplied to us by a Man who lives in the same sort of way by odd jobs, & among other capabilities has that of working in a garden, which my Mother will not forget, if we ever have another garden here.—In general however she thinks much more of Alton, & really expects to move there.

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Source:  Le Faye, Jane Austen’s Letters.

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The plaque on the Juniper Berry pub.

Source: http://www.seekingjaneausten.com/southampton.html

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Chawton Manor House or The Great House

Source: https://archive.org/stream/chawtonmanoritso00austuoft#page/76

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Ch3/48: Edward Knight inherited this estate at Chawton, and he and his family stayed at the Great House at intervals. Austen's other brother Frank and his family were permitted to stay here. The women in Chawton cottage went for walks in the grounds of the the Great House when Edward was not residing here.

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Edward's daughter Fanny has recorded her first visit to the Great House in 1807 in a letter to her old nanny, Miss Chapman:

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This is a fine large old house, built long before Queen Elizabeth I believe, & here are such a number of old irregular passages &c &c that it is very entertaining to explore them, & often when I think myself miles away from part of the house I find a passage or entrance close to it, & I don't know when I shall be quite mistress of all the intricate, & different ways. It is very curious to trace the genealogy of the Knights & all the old families that have possessed this estate, from the pictures of which there are quantities, & some descriptions of them have been routed out, so that we are not at a loss for amusement.

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Source: p. 144 in Jane Austen: A Family Record.

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Jane Austen's Garden at Chawton. Source: https://chawtonhouse.org/whats-on/garden-tour/

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Ch3/49: Edward Knight decided to gather his family around him, and offered his sisters and his mother the cottage in Chawton.

In Jane Austen: A Family Record (p. 151) it says:

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In the midst of his grief -- probably in consequence of his loss [death of Edward's wife] -- he wished to bind his mother and sisters more closely to himself, and gave them a choice between a house at Wye, near Godmersham, or one at Chawton. As they had already been considering going to Alton, Chawton was the obvious choice, and by November [1808] Henry was enthusiastically planning the move for them.

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Before moving there, Austen asks Cassandra in Letter 60:  'What sort of a kitchen garden is there?' (24th-25th October; p.156), and in Letter 67 (30th January 1809; p.181) the Chawton garden is again focused upon while still being stuck in Southampton: '[My Mother] hopes you will omit begging Mrs Seward to get the Garden cropped for us—supposing she leaves the House too early, to make the Garden any object to herself.'

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Once Mrs Austen, her two daughters and Martha Lloyd arrived at the Chawton Cottage, Austen enjoyed her home for the first time since they left Steventon back in 1801.

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We have a genuine proof that the garden in Chawton provided the little household with strawberries as Letter 75 (6th June 1811; p. 202) written from Chawton to Cassandra at Godmersham Park states:

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‘Yesterday I had the agreeable surprise of finding several scarlet strawberries quite ripe;—had you been at home, this would have been a pleasure lost.'

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There is one more proof that the cottage garden contained strawberries.

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In Letter 120 (29th Sept. 1815; p.303) Austen informs her niece Anna Lefroy that her [Anna's] grandmother ‘will send the Strawberry roots by Sally Benham, as early next week as the weather may allow her to take them up.’

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