Jane Austen (21 page)

Jane’s novels portray middle and upper-class society, where the characters, in the main, occupy fine houses, walk about in fine clothes and stroll leisurely through idyllic gardens and parks. Her characters – even the bad ones – almost invariably live happily ever after, in an environment where poverty and sickness figure only peripherally.

How can it be that Jane, all too often, sees misfortune and even death as an opportunity for humour? This, undoubtedly, was for her a coping mechanism; one which enabled her to avoid facing up to the more unpleasant side of life. And yet, in her novels, she demonstrates her concern for the wronged and underprivileged on countless occasions: in
Mansfield Park
, where Fanny Price is denied a fire in her bedroom; in
Emma
, where Emma Woodhouse insults Miss Bates; in
Sense and Sensibility
, where Sir John Middleton takes pity on the Dashwood family after they find themselves homeless. Neither should it be
forgotten that Jane looked after her mother – a chronically sick woman – for many years without complaint, and devotedly nursed her brother Henry when he too became ill.

‘I consider everybody as having the right to marry once in their Lives for Love, if they can …’
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These words were written by Jane to her sister Cassandra in 1808. They undoubtedly reflect a tremendous regret on her part, that during the years in which she might reasonably have expected to find conjugal happiness, she did not do so. However, in a letter which Jane subsequently wrote to her niece Fanny Knight, she affirmed that being on one’s own is preferable to being with the wrong person:

Jane subsequently advised Fanny:

What if Jane had married and had children of her own? Would she have made a good mother, and enjoyed the experience? This may be deduced from the comments which her nieces and others made about her, and also by what she said about them. Caroline Austen, for example, was the daughter of Jane’s eldest brother James by his second wife Mary Lloyd. She was only 12 years old when her Aunt Jane died and therefore ‘knew
her only with a child’s knowledge’. About Jane, Caroline had this to say:

On another occasion Caroline, whose visits to Chawton were frequent, compared Jane’s sister Cassandra with Jane herself – Jane being the one whom she considered to be a warmer and more engaging personality:

James E. Austen-Leigh, Caroline’s brother, remarked upon Jane’s relationship with her brother (James’s uncle) Edward and his children: Though Jane and Edward had been ‘a good deal separated’ from his family in childhood, ‘they were much together in after life, and Jane gave a large share of her affections to him [Edward] and his children’.
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Jane was clearly enamoured with her nieces, as this poem which she wrote about Anna Austen typically illustrates:

And the poem ends:

We are grateful to Jane for leaving us her wonderful portraits of life in a bygone age, albeit for a relatively small and privileged portion of society. Some might view the reading of such works, or the watching of their dramatised re-enactments, as a form of escapism. But what is the harm in that? After all, there are many features of the modern world from which it is a positive relief to escape.

Jane’s novels are timeless because they are concerned with human relationships. They demonstrate to us that even today, just as in her day, we have a choice as to what paths we follow, and a duty to differentiate between what is good and what is not – ‘goodness’ being one of Jane’s favourite descriptive words. We rejoice in Jane’s gaiety and her wit. We smile at her gentle teasing and dry sarcasm. We salute her courage, and we feel immensely sad that she died so young and that the love – of which she had so much to give to a prospective partner – remained unrequited.

Sadly, Steventon Rectory, Jane Austen’s birthplace, no longer exists. In 1826–27 Edward Knight built – for the occupation of his son William (Rector of Steventon from 1823–73) – a new rectory on the hillside opposite, overlooking the glebe land’s ‘Hanging Meadow’. This having been done, he demolished the old one together with its farm buildings and the cottage in the lane. Today, the site of the rectory is indicated by an area where snowdrops grow in springtime, and by the remains of the well from which the Austens obtained their water.

It was during William Knight’s incumbency that a new spire was added to the church.

In 1936, Jane’s great-grandniece Emma Austen-Leigh placed a memorial to Jane on the left-hand side of the nave. In 1952 the fragment of Steventon’s Saxon cross was donated to Steventon church by Captain and Mrs Hutton Croft, the then owners of the Steventon Estate. It is now on display inside the church.

Repairs and renovations to the church have been carried out through the generosity of the Jane Austen Societies of
Great Britain and North America. This includes the restoration of the roof and spire (1984), the redecoration of the interior (1988), and the renovation and re-hanging of the church’s three medieval bells (1995). In 1975, to mark the bicentenary of Jane’s birth, the east window, which suffered from extensive corrosion, was almost entirely replaced. Also, with the help of the Parochial Church Council and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, the wrought iron railings surrounding the churchyard were replaced. In 2000, to mark the millennium, a new cover for the font was donated to the church.

In
c
.1880 Henry Harris, the then owner of the Steventon Estate, built a new manor house which overlooked the original Tudor manor house. Unfortunately, in 1932 this Victorian building, together with an adjacent farm, was destroyed by fire, whereupon the owners, a Mr and Mrs Onslow Fane, decided to extend the Tudor manor house which, sadly, was demolished in 1970.

Jane’s home for the last eight years of her life is now the Jane Austen’s House Museum, which has been owned by the Jane Austen Memorial Trust since 1947.