Jane Austen (3 page)

This implies that the furniture had been hand-made to order.

Jane was born on 16 December 1775 at Steventon Rectory, which would be her home for the next twenty-four years. Her father, the Revd George Austen, expressed his delight at the new arrival and he wrote to his sister Philadelphia to say: ‘We now have another girl, a present plaything for her sister Cassy [Cassandra], and a future companion’.
1
Undoubtedly Jane’s mother, Mrs Cassandra Austen, was equally delighted.

According to Jane’s nephew, James E. Austen-Leigh, Mrs Austen

Of her daughter Cassandra, Mrs Austen said:

In the case of Jane (and probably Cassandra also), Deirdre Le Faye believes that the foster parents referred to were John and Elizabeth Littleworth of nearby Deane.

Anna Lefroy recalled that in a room on the first floor of the rectory, the youthful Jane and her sister made a dressing room [used for dressing and for the storage of clothes] ‘as they were pleased to call it’. This ‘communicated with one of a smaller size’ where Jane and Cassandra slept:

Jane learnt her letters and words using ivory tablets, on which was written a letter of the alphabet. A sampler – worked in various stitches as an indication of proficiency and intended to be framed and hung on the wall – embroidered by Jane, measured 10in by 11.5in. It portrayed a compilation of various phrases from
The Book of Common Prayer
, with her name and the date:

Beneath the text are several trees, one of which has a bird sitting atop it, and the whole is surrounded by a patterned motif.
5
She also made herself clothes and hats, including a cap decorated with lace for indoor use which was worn with ribbons, the colours of which were chosen according to the occasion.

Jane was visited at the rectory by her music master George William Chard, assistant organist at Winchester Cathedral, who rode the 14 miles from that city to Steventon in order to teach her and, presumably, other pupils in the area. Jane said, ‘I practice [
sic
] every day as much as I can – I wish it were more for his sake’.
6
She practised the pianoforte each morning before breakfast, and entertained visitors with her playing whenever the occasion demanded it. She also spent time collecting songs and musical scores which she copied into her music book. She enjoyed singing, and a favourite song of hers which she loved to sing was by Scottish poet and songwriter Robert Burns entitled
Their Groves O’ Sweet Myrtle
:

When Cassandra was sent at the age of 8 to a small, private school in Oxford, Jane, despite her tender age, insisted on joining her there. The school subsequently moved to Southampton where Jane and Cassandra were both taken ill with sore throats
(possibly caused by diphtheria), whereupon their mother took them back to Steventon to be nursed back to health. They were then sent to a boarding school in Reading where Jane remained until she was 11. After this they were taught at home, availing themselves of their father George’s his extensive library – with his permission.

Jane was taught French by Mrs Sarah Latournelle (
nèe
Hackitt), an Englishwoman who despite being married to a Frenchman could herself speak not a word of that language!
7
Mrs Latournelle ran a school in the Forbury, formerly the outer courtyard of Reading Abbey.

George Austen encouraged his children, Jane included, to appreciate poetry and literature. For example, in the evenings it was his habit to read to them works by the English poet William Cowper (whom Jane, when she became a novelist, often quoted in her novels). As James E. Austen-Leigh said of the Revd Austen:

And William Austen-Leigh, in his book
Jane Austen: Her Life
and Letters
, declared:

Jane’s brother Henry also encouraged her in reading and, according to him, her ‘favourite moral writers were Samuel
Johnson in prose, and William Cowper in verse’.
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This was not to say that Jane did not read the occasional raunchy novel, such as Henry Fielding’s
The History of Tom Jones
,
A Foundling
, or even works showing the darker side of life such as Mathew Lewis’s Gothic novel
The Monk
, featuring rape, incest and poisoning.

Jane’s talent for writing manifested itself in the plays which she wrote as a child and dedicated to various members of her family, including her father George and her brother Edward, and also to friends. But being a playwright was not enough. She also took part, with her siblings, in amateur theatricals which were normally performed in the large barn, except at Christmas time when they were held in the rectory dining room. A play was chosen – for instance,
The Sultan
by Anglo-Irish playwright Isaac Bickerstaffe (whose real name was Jonathan Swift), which was enacted at Steventon in 1790 – for which eldest brother James would normally compose a prologue and an epilogue. Other plays which were performed included Mrs Susannah Centlivre’s farcical comedy
The
Wonder: A Woman Keeps a Secret
; Henry Fielding’s
Tom Thumb
(a burlesque of the popular playwrights of the day), and the Revd James Townley’s farce
High Life Below Stairs
.

Jane and her siblings helped their mother at the glebe farm where Mrs Austen’s cattle were looked after by John Bond (born
c
.1738), the Revd Austen’s bailiff. ‘John Bond begins to find himself grow[ing] old’, Jane told her sister Cassandra, adding playfully that this was something ‘which John Bond ought not to do’. So it was thereafter decided that John was to confine himself to the less arduous duty of looking after the sheep.

Jane and Cassandra were in the habit of visiting and assisting those of their father’s parishioners who happened to be poor and needy. One Christmas time, for example, Jane purchased
for them items such as a shift (dress), a shawl and some pairs of worsted stockings with money provided by Steventon’s squire, Edward Knight of Godmersham Park, Kent.

Life was not all work and no play – which is not to suggest that Jane regarded her writing as anything other than a pleasure. Favourite games which she enjoyed were cup-and-ball, at which Jane was reputedly an expert; the New Game of Emulation, played with dice where the object was to reach the final square on which an angel was depicted, and spillikins, where turns were taken with an ivory stick with a hook on its end to pick up other sticks from a pile, without disturbing them. Charades were also popular and were intended ‘to enliven the long evenings … by merry verses and happy, careless inventions of the moment, such as flowed without difficulty from the lively minds of those amongst whom she lived’.
11

Not only Jane, but also her mother and father, and brothers James, Henry, and Francis, invented brain-teasing conundrums. The following is a somewhat macabre one, composed by Jane, where the reader is invited to guess to what the author is referring:

And the answer to the conundrum is ‘Hemlock’!

Jane and Cassandra enjoyed walking to Deane to visit their friends Mary and Martha Lloyd – a journey which Jane particularly relished when the ‘hard, black frosts lay on the ground’.
12
Anna Lefroy remembered how, on the walks through the lanes, Jane and Cassandra wore ‘pattens’ (shoes with raised soles intended to protect the dress when the wearer walked outdoors
on muddy ground), which were ‘usually worn at that time, even by Gentlewomen. I remember too their bonnets [which were] precisely alike in colour, shape & material’.
13

Jane also enjoyed visiting nearby Overton where she made purchases from a ‘Scotchman’ (a person, not necessarily Scottish by nationality, who was a doorstep seller of fabric and drapery goods):

Balls were held in the Town Hall at Basingstoke, where the Master of Ceremonies introduced the guests and initiated the proceedings by leading one of the young ladies out onto the floor. Minuets, quadrilles and ‘Roger de Coverley’ were favourite dances of the day. The most favourite dance, however, was the polka, and this was undoubtedly on account of its having been forbidden at Court – ladies not being expected to reveal as much of their legs as the dance required. Jane responded to this injunction by transcribing as many polkas as she could lay her hands on into her music book, and playing them on the pianoforte at every conceivable opportunity!

Jane had the good fortune to have a friend, Mrs Anne Lefroy (whose son Benjamin would marry Jane’s niece Anna Austen), who was generous by nature and arranged many social gatherings at her home, which was not far from Steventon. Jane always felt at a certain disadvantage; she and her sister being obliged each to survive on a mere
£
20 a year allowance, given to them by their father for their personal expenses. This was until she earned money of her own through the sales of her books.