"the little bit(two inches wide)of Ivory on which I work...."

A portrait of Jane Austen by Cassandra Austen,now in the National Portrait Gallery.This particular drawing was drawn on paper but it serves a similar purpose to those painted on ivory that Jane refers to.

Here is my picture of Jane's portrait .

An example of a miniature portrait painted in watercolours on an oval of ivory at the Victoria and Albert.
Another example of watercolour on ivory.
These two pictures can be found at the Victoria and Albert. There is a whole gallery devoted to miniature portraiture there.
“THE LITTLE BIT OF IVORY ON WHICH I WORK.”

Jane Austen wrote to her nephew, James Edward Austen, on Monday 16th December 1816. She congratulated him on leaving Winchester College and commiserated with him about his time there. Jane writes to him in terms of an equal in novel writing.

“Uncle Henry writes very superior sermons-You and I must try and get hold of one or two and put them into our novels.”

She is an aunt encouraging,  her nephew’s efforts. Then she explains the difference between Uncle Henrys writing and her writing; his is,
“strong, manly , spirited Sketches full of Variety and Glow.”
Hers is comparable to a,
“ little bit(two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour?”

It was the practice, in 1816, to paint miniature portraits in fine detail on thin slivers of ivory cut from elephant tusks. They were intended to not only show the likeness of the sitter but also to try and capture their personality.


Thirty one years after Jane wrote her letter, in 1847, Charlotte Bronte has Jayne Eyre using the miniature portrait as a sort of talisman or voodoo to expurge her feelings for Mr Rochester and her thoughts and feelings about Blanche Ingram. She decides to draw a self portrait in chalks on a piece of glass and a portrait in watercolours of Blanche Ingram on , “a piece of smooth ivory.”


Susan Pearce,who has researched the meaning of artefacts, says that objects not only carry messages from their conception and creation, but gain messages as the years and centuries pass. They are handled and used in different contexts and so have new histories and meanings attached to them.
We could say the same of Jane Austen's novels.





References:



Pearce, Susan, Objects as meaning; or narrating the past.
In: Interpreting objects and collections.
Routledge 1994


Bronte,Charlotte, Jayne Ayre
Penguin Classics, London 2006

Le Faye, Deirdre (Ed) Jane Austen’s Letter’s (New Edition)
Oxford University Press 1997


The National Portrait Gallery
http://www.npg.org.uk/

With the Austens at Netley Abbey

The refrectory at Netley Abbey.

The main monastic buildings.

This was the Netley Abbey's hospital.

The abbey church looking east.


The remains of the south transept of the abbey church showing first floor galleries.

A recess to the right of the high altar. Water and wine would have been kept here to use during mass.

This doorway shows some of the changes William Paulette made to the structure when the abbey became his country home.

An architectural feature. A stone arch would have been supported by this pediment.

The west end of the abbey church showing the site of the high altar.

The pilgrims entrance. Travelers could call at this door and ask for food and water.

Arches leading from the cloisters to one of the side rooms.

The infirmery with gothic window and vaulted roof.

A window remains of William Paulettes great house.

Pilars and arches in the abbey church.

An intricate gothic stone window arch.

Netley Abbey is on the eastern outskirts of Southampton. Jane and her family often took a ferry from the Itchen River out into Southampton Water and were rowed two miles to Netley. The Isle of Wight was in view along Southampton Water, in the distance.

Writing to Cassandra ,who was staying with their brother, Edward, at Godmersham Park, from Castle Square on Monday 24th October 1808 she writes,

"We had a little water party yesterday; I and my two nephews (George and Edward came from Winchester School to stay with their Aunt Jane.Their mother, Edward's wife, having died)went from the Itchen Ferry up to Northam, where we landed, looked at the 74(A 74 gun battleship)and walked home, and it was so much enjoyed that I had intended to take them to Netley today; the tide was just right for our going immediately after noonshine, but I am afraid there will be rain; if we cannot get so far, however, we may perhaps go round from the ferry to the quay..."

Netley Abbey is a magificent ruin. It is a Cistercian monastery founded in 1239 by Peter des Roches who was Bishop of Winchester from 1205 to 1238.Wealthy clergy, like bishops and also rich Lords and knights, often founded churches and religious establishments because they thought it would put them in good stead with the almighty and help pave their way to heaven.

In 1536, during The Reformation, the abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII. Sir William Paulette, Henry's treasurer, turned it into a magnificent country home and estate.

When Jane visited the abbey it had become a romantic ruin. A significant amount of it's masonry had been taken to build local farms, barns and churches. Why so much still exists today is partly due to superstition. A local builder was removing masonry from one of the elegant arched windows in the abbey church when a large stone fell from on high and crushed him. Many people saw this as an omen and the taking of stone from Netley stopped.

Nowadays a lot of the shrubs , ivy and bushes that grew on and around the ruins in Jane's day are no longer there but the ruin itself is as it would have been in Jane's time.

If you ever get the opportunity, Netley Abbey is worth a visit. Why not have a picnic there as Jane and the Austens would have done. Choose a sunny Summers day though.

Here is an English heritage link to Netley Abbey.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.14335

Highbury and Hartfield, perhaps.

Mr Elliot, bachelor to begin with,  lived here, next to the church.

Mr Weston's House, Randalls.

Emma and Mr Woodhouse lived here.

The Martins family lived here.

Mrs Goddard's school

Part of Abbey Mill farm.

The mill.

Highbury church. So who got married here?

Shopping in Highbury.

The new BBC version of EMMA has been uppermost in a lot of Janeites minds just lately.

We all accept that Highbury is a fictitious place although Jane has it anchored geographically amongst some very real places, seven miles from Box Hill, sixteen miles from London, twelve miles from Richmond upon Thames and nine miles from Kingston upon Thames. A place called, Cobham, sends news of scarlet fever prevalent in it's town. Mr Knightley and Mr Martin are dispatched off to Kingston, Mr Churchill resides in far off Richmond while making visits to Highbury and they all go on an outing to Box Hill. By it's closeness to real places and its inhabitants going backwards and forewards between real places and Highbury, it is given a "reallity,"of it's own. It is the quintisential English town of the late 18th century, early 19th century.It has everything of that period, the great house down to the humble farm and cottage,and all the classes and types of people that populated an English town of that time with all their various roles.

Jane Austen used her experiences of  real places to help her create Highbury. Other places that she could draw on were Basingstoke, Alton, a town near Chawton that she knew intimately, Great Bookham, Leatherhead, Winchester, Southampton and Bath too.

If you visit those places today it easy to fall into the trap of picking existing buildings and sites that could have been an influence. As for the characters, human nature doesn't change much and there are always people to be found that can fit the mould.

I like to think that one place Jane knew and visited, often travelling through it and mentioned as an aside in Emma itself, as well as in her letters,could be a fitting model for Highbury .Cobham, is where they had," scarlet fever," so nobody was encouraged to visit.

Here are some pictures of Cobham today.

I haven't got pictures to fit every character's home but just outside of Cobham, tantalisingly about a mile distance froim the centre,  is Painshill Park and house, an 18th century landscaped garden with many, "follies,"in the grounds including a ruined abbey. Could these grounds and this house be Mr Knightly's home? Well, maybe not. After all, this whole message is about me, fantasising.

All the best,

Tony

PS Here's a link to Painshill Park. It's worth looking at. An 18th century dream.

http://www.painshill.co.uk/

Going to Alton with Jane.

An 18th century building in Alton.

The door to Henry's bank.

A plaque showing that this building was the site of Henry Austen's bank.

The main door to The Swan Inn.

Perhap Jane visited the bakers. It is now a pub but it's origins are in it's name.

Looking down the high street.

The north end of the High Street. The raised pavement shows the affluence of Alton. Raised pavements allowed finely dressed ladies to keep their long dresses free of the mud and mire of the road.They were expensive things to build. Only a wealthy market town could afford to build raised pavements. This pavement is in front of Henry's bank.

The Swan Inn. This was the main coaching inn in the town . Here coaches from London would stop. Jane may have used it's services.

Alton High Street two years ago in July.

A beautiful 18th century door. Perhaps Jane knocked on it to visit a friend.

The main church in Alton. Jane probably visited this church.

Jane's donkey carriage which she would ride in along Hampshire lanes.

Chawton, where Jane lived for the last ten years of her life, is two miles from the county town of Alton in Hampshire. Jane had many connections with Alton. She would walk there or ride in her donkey carriage to go shopping and visit family and friends. Her brother Henry opened a branch of his bank in Alton.

Writing to Caroline Austen, her niece and James's daughter, on Thursday 23rd January 1817, nearly two hundred years ago, she writes,

"I feel myself getting stronger than I was half a year ago, & can so perfectly well walk to Alton, or back again, without the slightest fatigue that I hope to be able to do both when the Summer comes."
Some of these places Jane would have known. There are many buildings surviving from her days.

Jane's birth and death

A window in the side of the church at Steventon where jane Austen's father was vicar.
A view of the side of Steventon Church. Jane Austen's tomb in the north aisle of Winchester Cathedral.
Another view showing the inscription on Jane Austen's tomb.
The house Jane died in.
This is the house Jane Austen died in. It is just outside the precincts of Winchester Cathedral. The house belonged to her doctor.
The front entrance to Winchester Cathedral.
This medieval face is to the left of the door leading into Steventon Church. Jane would have seen it often.
A cross roads in Steventon Village, Hampshire.
Steventon Church.
This is the grave of Jane's brother, James Austen, who took over as the vicar of Steventon when their father retired.

Some cottages in Steventon. As a baby Jane was sent to live with a family in the village. Women in the village would often act as wet nurses for Mrs Austen. It is sometimes sited as a reason for Jane's emotional distance from her mother. However, using wet nurses was a common practice at the time.
Jane Austen was born in Steventon near Basingstoke in Hampshire. She was the daughter of the vicar of Steventon. She probably thought she was destined to live in Steventon all her life. Some of her novels and all her early writing was done there. It was a shock to her and her sister Cassandra, when her father retired and decided to move the family to Bath. Jane had no choice in the matter.She only found out after the decision had been made.

In the last years of her life Jane Austen lived in Chawton in Hampshire. She was ill for at least a year before she died. Her sister, Cassandra, took her, in her last days, to live at her doctors house in Wichester, close to the precincts of Winchester Cathedral. She died in the home of her doctor on the 18th July 1817. She was 41 years old.

Nobody is absolutely sure of what she died of. It is generally thought, from descriptions of how she looked and felt, in family letters, that it was Addisons disease, which is nowadays treatable. Other theories point to a form of cancer called Hodgkins disease.

here are some pictures of Steventon village and church. Also some pictures of the house where Jane died and her grave in Winchester Cathedral.