Articles @ Academia.edu
A reminder for some, and a “poke” for those new to the SMITH & GOSLING blog: I post “original” articles on Academia.edu, a website dedicated to papers, books, classes, etc. relating to academics and independent scholars.
These currently include:
Combine Jane Austen, Eliza Chute, and “Sense and Sensibility” with a true-life courtship and abandonment. Mrs. Wheeler, a woman taken in by the Chutes of The Vyne, left an orphan daughter, Hester, who left deep impressions on both Caroline Wiggett and Caroline Austen.
The flower painter Margaret Meen also taught painting: pupils included Queen Charlotte and the Royal Princesses; the four Smith sisters of Erle Stoke Park: Maria, Eliza, Augusta and Emma. Little about Meen’s life has been uncovered — until now. Four letters lead to some surprisingly-full biographical details of the life of a woman artist in Georgian England.
{NB: “Miss Meen” appeared in the July/August 2014 issue No. 70 of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine as “Flowering in Four Letters”. The link, above, is the original article submitted to JARW. To purchase the magazine, please go to BACK ISSUES on the JARW website}
Links to ACADEMIA articles can always be found in the navigation at right.
And, soon, these two articles will be joined by a new treatise!
Early in the history of this blog, I dangled the idea that JAMES BOSWELL was one of the “famous” names connected with the Smiths & Goslings. So watch my Academia page for the upload (coming shortly) of “Boswell’s ‘Miss Cunliffe’: Augmenting James Boswell’s missing Chester Journal“.
Academia.edu will ask you to sign in to view articles (Google and Facebook are two alternatives to creating an Academia account); articles are PDF.
The Beau Monde
Kildare alerted me to a useful — and highly praising — review of the book I have recommended to several contacts and friends:
Hannah Greig’s The Beau Monde describes a world in which the Smiths and Goslings participated, if on a slightly less-central level than someone like the glittering Duchess of Devonshire…
It has dawned on me, while reading, that the parent generation was more among the “movers and shakers” than the child generation. Routs, card parties, soirées – held for hundreds of guests – was the norm for the Hon. Charlotte Gosling at No. 5 Portland Place during the Regency years. Her two step-daughters, Mary and her sister Elizabeth, married well – young men of means; but they never supported the life Charlotte, the daughter of a peer (the 2nd Baron Walsingham) strove for in the early years of her marriage. Emma’s great aunt, Mrs Smith of Bersted Lodge, in her frequent interactions with the Royals – her twin sister, Lady Mayo, eventually served as Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Adelaide (1830-1837), enjoyed an intimacy with the likes of the Duchesses of Clarence, Kent, and Gloucester, Princess Augusta, and even attended parties at Carlton House. Emma has left an account of the presentation of her eldest sister Augusta in 1817. Mamma was magnificently dressed!
See my page The Fashionable World or posts like Erle Stoke Park: The Well-to-do Party and What If You Threw A Party – and Everyone Came
More “Fashionable World,” 1801
1801 turns out to be an unusually RICH year for finding the Smiths & Goslings in the newspapers.
The “London Season” was in full-swing!
And my ladies – Eliza Gosling (Mary’s mother, the former Eliza Cunliffe), Mary Smith (Mary’s Aunt and Emma’s great-aunt; the former Mary Cunliffe, now Mrs Drummond Smith), were giving balls and routs; my gentlemen – William Gosling (Mary’s father), Drummond Smith (Emma’s great-uncle), were giving dinners.
Quick IDs to some others:
- Alexander Davison had married William Gosling’s sister, Harriet.
- The Francis Goslings lived in Bloomsbury Square.
- Lady Cunliffe was the widowed mother of Eliza Gosling and Mary Smith.
- Lord Walsingham was a de Grey relation of the future (2nd wife) Mrs William Gosling.
- Mrs Thomas Smith (later of Bersted Lodge) was Emma’s great-aunt, the former Susannah Mackworth Praed.
- Mrs Gregg of Bedford Square was Mary’s “Aunt Gregg,” sister of William Gosling.
- Lady Frances Compton was the unmarried sister of Lord Northampton, called “Aunt Frances” by the Smiths of Suttons siblings.
* * *
{newspaper} The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 6 Feb 1801
“Mrs. Drummond Smith’s parties, during the fashionable season, will be given in the same stile they were last year.
…
Mrs. Gosling had a large party of fashionable visitants at her house a few days ago in Portland-place.”
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 14 Feb 1801
“Mr. and Mrs. Davison have returned to town for the residue of the winter. Mrs. Davison’s fashionable parties are expected to commence in the course of a fortnight.”
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 18 Feb 1801
among the attendees at the Marchioness of Salisbury’s Rout, among Mistresses: Drummond Smith
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 24 Feb 1801
“Mrs. Drummond Smith’s parties commence early in next month, at her magnificent house in Piccadilly.”
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 27 Feb 1801
among “near five hundred personages of distinction”: Messrs. – Drummond Smith…Mistresses – Drummond Smith
… “Mrs. Gosling’s Rout on Monday night, in Bloomsbury-square, was very respectably attended.”
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 2 Mar 1801
“FASHIONABLE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE WEEK.
Friday.
Mrs. Drummond Smith’s Rout, Piccadilly”
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 4 Mar 1801
at Mrs. Vaughan’s Rout (Monday evening, Manchester-square) “attended by upwards of three hundred personages of distinction”: both Drummond and Mrs Drummond Smith
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 6 Mar 1801
“Mrs. Drummond Smith will entertain a small party of friends, this evening, at her elegant house in Piccadilly.”
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 14 Mar 1801
at the Countess of Mansfield’s Rout (her “first assembly since her marriage”) {the house a “noble and spacious family mansion, in the centre of Portland-place; the house having previously undergone improvements in the first style of elegance”} “near 500” attend: among them Lady Cunliffe, Lord Walsingham; also Lady Wingfield, Lady Sey and Sele [sic], Mistress Drummond Smith, Mistress Fremantle.
same issue: “Mrs. Drummond Smith’s rout, last night, was attended by a very numerous party of distinguished friends.”
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 25 Mar 1801
notice is given of Mrs Methuen’s rout; among the “upwards of three hundred personnages of fashion” was Mrs William Gosling and Mrs Drummond Smith. Mr C. Smith may be Charles (“Papa”). Among the “Ladies” are Lady Cunliffe and Lady Frances Compton. At the top of the guest list: The Prince of Orange.
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 1 April 1801
“Mrs. Davison had a private ball on Friday evening in St. James’s-square, which commenced at ten o’clock, and broke up at one.”
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 6 April 1801
“FASHIONABLE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE WEEK
Friday
Mr Gosling’s Grand Dinner, Portland Place“
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 13 Apr 1801
“FASHIONABLE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE WEEK.
Tuesday.
Mr. Gosling’s grand Dinner, Portland-place
…
Mrs. Gosling’s Rout, Portland-place
Thursday.
Mr. Cure’s grand Dinner, Great George-street.
Mr. Drummond Smith’s Dinner, Piccadilly.
Friday.
…
Mrs. Thomas Smith’s Rout, New Norfolk-street.
Saturday.
…
Mrs. Gosling’s Rout.”
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 20 Apr 1801
“FASHIONABLE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE WEEK.
This evening.
…
Mrs. Thomas Smith’s Rout, New Norfolk-street
Thursday.
…
Mrs. Gosling’s Rout, Portland-place
Saturday.
Mr. Davidson’s Grand Dinner, St. James’s-square”
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 27 Apr 1801
“FASHIONABLE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE WEEK.
This evening.
[note Lady Syke’s Rout, Audley-sq]
Mrs. Gosling’s Rout, Bloomsbury-square
Tuesday – Mrs. Gregg’s Rout, Bedford-square”
*
The Morning Post & Gazetteer, 5 May 1801
among the LONG list of attendees at the Duchess of Chandos’ Ball: Mrs W. Gosling, Mrs Drummond Smith
* * *
Read about The Beau Monde, in the book
by Hannah Greig
My Austen Summer, 2007
Last year, about this time, I promised to share with readers of Two Teens in the Time of Austen my own research diaries, kept during a stay in Winchester, England, in order to visit the Hampshire Record Office. Now, thanks to Memoirture, where I can post these private thoughts in a slightly less “public” medium of a social network, I hope to get this “project in process” online. [UPDATE (April 2015): Memoirture has been taken down; I’m not sure I’ll repost the diaries anywhere.]
By May 2007, I had interlibrary-loaned the microfilmed diaries of Lady Smith (image above, 1829); visited Duke University to transcribe Mary Gosling’s pre-marriage diaries; ordered the microfilming of Sir Charles Joshua Smith’s late diaries (1826-30). Now it was a chance, I hoped, to learn more about Mary’s life among the Smith family. I had slowly built-up the two families: parents and siblings for both Mary and Charles, and even placed Emma Smith within the circle of Jane Austen. I was writing, and hoping to have published, a story of my two girls.
I had left my job, and pitched headlong onto a plane and into the spare room of a stranger whom I had never met. I would live with Chris for two months. During those two months I met people like Rowland and Peggy — lifelong Hampshire natives; and visited Chawton Cottage with them. I was befriended by Helen Lefroy, and been taken by her to a wonderful luncheon with an entertaining guest speaker, speaking on… who else but JANE AUSTEN! I was given the opportunity to speak to a group in Kinwarton about my dear Fanny Seymour. And I typed and transcribed my fingers to the bone. Letters, cross-written letters! Diaries, the daily life of my Emma and all her siblings.
I had a favorite spot, sitting every day – Monday through Saturday – by the window. You’ll undoubtedly read some gripes about those around me, but at present the diary is rather prosaic: flying from my home in Vermont to London Heathrow; getting from Heathrow to Winchester. Meeting Chris and seeing “my home” for the first time. Reading – “in the flesh” – my first letters and diaries from Mary and Emma. The diaries were so TINY. At one point I realized I had all the generations: a Letter written by Lady Cunliffe (Mary’s maternal grandmother), Eliza Gosling (Mary’s mother), Mary Smith (my diarist), and Mimi Smith (elder daughter of Mary and Charles).
UPDATE January 2018 – the Memoirture website is no more (the following links do NOT work); I lost the photos & links, but I have the original “word” documents. Part I is up on this blog. Others will follow in the coming weeks.
UPDATE 5/19/13: Part 2 of “My Austen Summer, 2007” is now online – an account at Memoirture is FREE; you must be logged in to enlarge photos, click on links, and make comments. At present, all parts will be viewable by the public; future plans will limit parts TWO and beyond to “contacts”.
UPDATE 5/25/13: Part 3 of “My Austen Summer, 2007” is now online.
UPDATE 8/19/13: Part 4 of “My Austen Summer, 2007” is now online. My father’s birthday; laughter, reading Mamma Smith’s letters; British weather: rain…
Hear part of a letter, written in January 1797, on YouTube
Pride & Prejudice: Having a Ball
Act now to watch Amanda Vickery’s program Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball.
Austen! Food! Dance! Music! Wonderfully informative.
You’ll even learn about White Soup.
for more on
- Ivan Day & Regency Cookery
- Mrs Gosling’s 1816 Ball at No. 5 Portland Place, London
- Sir William Knighton at Carlton House
- At the BBC
- Martha Lloyd’s White Soup @ Chawton
Comment on the show
- leave comments below; I’d LOVE to hear from you
Wild for Regency Antiques
Yesterday I went *wild* for “pinning” Regency Antiques and Furniture, and fleshed out a board that had only a couple of dull pieces. I never really thought about it before, but items like Tea Caskets, Writing Slopes, and Ormolu Lustres were items used every day by the Smiths & Goslings. Peppering their reimagined homes — on Portland Place, at Suttons and Roehampton Grove — with furnishings and knickknacks enables me to fully see their everyday existences.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they had a piece similar to this George I Bookcase (I’m in love…); and check out the *fun* Nutmeg Grater in the “shape” of Brighton Pavilion!
Now this pinning is fun, because I could never afford the Brighton Pavilion grater (there’s NO price listed; and you know the old saying: “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it”), but it will forever be on my Pinterest Board!
What grabbed my attention, and what I’m blogging about today, however, was in seeing the several models of “Regency work tables”. I give as a for-instance, this lovely piece:
I was QUITE perplexed by the fabric “bag” which they all had, dangling like the utter on a cow. It wasn’t until searching specifically for regency work tables tonight that I found one piece illustrated by several photos, one of which included its “bag” pulled out. Ah… ha…!
I had assumed that the “bag” was more flexible and maybe, just maybe, dropped in from the top. Nope. Pulled out, it seems quite a “constructed” box, doesn’t it; and it obviously slides into place. Ingenious, when you think about “tidying up” your space. Grab your work basket and — slip — under the table it goes, all nice and neat.
In the booklet Scenes from Life at Suttons there is brief mention made of the work basket — quite obviously the pieces distributed to the poor at the year’s end, that the Smith girls worked on periodically. I need to hunt up the passage I’m recalling (so do check back), but my impression was that if you had a spare moment you grabbed a piece of clothing and sewed. Perhaps this was where such works-in-progress were stored!
* * *
NB: www.onlinegalleries.com has been my “place” of antiquing choice. Please, let me know YOUR favorite online shops.
Regency “It Girls” @ Bonhams
Thrilling happenings today. Over the last few days, with a new contact, I’ve been digging into the background of Bersted Lodge — this was the estate of Thomas and Susannah Smith, great aunt and uncle to my Emma Smith; and therefore Aunt and Uncle to her Aunt Emma.
So imagine my complete surprise to come across a watercolor – at Yale (in their British Center for Art) – of Bersted Lodge, done in 1831, by Anne Rushout. Who was she? Had she been at the Smiths’ Bersted Lodge in Bognor Regis in 1831? In one word: YES!
So I’ve been digging and digging…
and ultimately arrived at this little beauty, up for auction at Bonhams this past summer; you will NEVER guess what it sold for:
You may click on the picture to be taken to Bonhams site for a full description of this divine trio, but I will ID them:
- Anne Rushout (c1768-1849)
- Harriet Rushout (d. 1851), married Sir Charles Cockerell
- Elizabeth Rushout (c1774-1862), married 1st Sydney Bowles; 2nd John Wallis Graeve (or Grieve?)
It was Harriet’s married name – Cockerell – that had me crowing: I remember transcribing a name that could be either Lady Cocherell or Lady Cockerell. Now I know… And I’ve not only Rushouts and Cockerells, I’ve at least one Mr Bowles, too.
But to get back to my trio of beauties.
Evidence suggests this work was commissioned by SYDNEY BOWLES – which makes it that much more special to me, for he obviously did not have a long life, if his widow remarried by 1819. Bonhams estimated the piece to sell for £10-15,000. It sold for an ASTOUNDING £67,250 !!! Whoa. Wonder: to whom??
I have found that the University of London has diaries (1828-1849) for Anne Rushout, including the time (I hope…) she spent at Bersted Lodge in 1831; Oxford’s Bodleian has letters to Harriet Lady Cockerell (alas, possibly not early enough for me – 1839-1850). But the interesting and somewhat perplexing note is that a 1958 article, based on diary entries for Anne Rushout, has her diaries spanning 1791 to 1845!?! I could easily suspect a division of the diaries in someone’s will; but what accounts for the additional years at the end?
I’d welcome any information on ANY of the Rushout Girls – but especially anything that puts them in contact with Mrs Thomas Smith (née Susan or Susannah Mackworth Praed); and especially about the whereabouts of those early-early 1791-1827 diaries belonging to Anne.
Creevey & Croker
After finishing the Helene Hanff books (see the post on 84, Charing Cross Road), I was letting my fingers do the walking through my downstairs bookcase – and plucked an old paperback “selection” of Thomas Creevey’s papers. Gosh! I remember when I first bought this: I hankered after the THREE books it was based on. Guess what? you can pretty much find them online now… Ah, it had taken at least some dusty stacks grabbing (if not storage…) to find the Maxwell edition. A lot of work to find them back then.
So here I’m posting links, including those of a “rival” John Wilson Croker.
Thomas Creevey (left) left letters – and if he DID leave diaries, they’ve not been traced and may have been “swallowed up” by those not wanting his thoughts and opinions to leak out. I hadn’t realized before: Born in 1768, Thomas Creevey was of an age with the likes of William Gosling and Eliza Chute!
My paperback is a reprint edition edited by John Gore, called Thomas Creevey’s Papers, 1793-1838.
I was reading Gore’s introduction last evening. Gore’s 1944 compilation had been preceded by Sir Herbert Maxwell’s 1904 2-volume set. Gore had worked not to duplicate items. Gore writes of Maxwell’s work “taking Edwardian London by storm”. We should all be so lucky…
Gore included an appendix about the possible parentage (father) of Thomas Creevey. This opening speaks VOLUMES to me: “Probably all who have to do with biography will acknowledge the fact that the truth too often comes to light after and not at the publication of a definitive biography, even of one which is the result of years of patient research.”
That, indeed, is a big fear of mine. Some BOMBSHELL will burst, exploding a supposition I’ve held and perhaps long cherished. I already have had a minor bombshell in a little mystery surrounding Lady Elizabeth Compton and her eventual husband Charles Scrase Dickins. One letter was all it took… And one letter disclosed that Maria Smith was sought in marriage by the young man, Mr Odell, who accompanied her brother Drummond on his trip to Italy — a trip that Drummond never returned from. And one letter in a published source led me to the diary of Lord Ossory that Ann in Ireland was kind enough to look through for me. All it takes is “one”. Gore finished his thought by saying “Truth will out . . . but reluctantly. One cannot obtain a warrant to search the attics of every country house…” (maybe not! but I’d LIKE TO do so) “…vital facts often come to light immediately after interest is aroused by the publication of a biography.”
- The Creevey Papers, edited by Sir Herbert Maxwell: vol I, vol II – this is via Internet Archive, but is a Google book. It looks like both volumes are in one. Another link; here’s a two-volume set: vol I; vol II. I like the “set” because vol II has a portrait of MRS Creevey – and you know I’d rather read about the ladies.
- Creevey’s Life and Times, edited by John Gore seems not online — yet?!
In reading the introduction, I was reminded of John Wilson Croker (below)- his works cover nearly the same period.
I can’t say much about either man – never read Croker and it’s been years since I’ve dipped into Creevey. I based a character in two short-stories on his sister. Should look into getting those stories published…
One Man Band: Life of an Independent Scholar
Curious about what a project like this Smith & Gosling research entails?
Although I worked (as staff) in academia for nineteen years, being an “independent scholar” (ie, without academic affiliation) means you don’t have the “interaction” of colleagues. That I really miss — and that’s why I’m so grateful for the readers of Two Teens in the Time of Austen! If I can’t bend your ears, you at least allow me to bend your eyes. And it’s a two-way street – I value your comments and “likes” and dialogue.
So here’s my summary of Life as an Independent Scholar:
- the location of diaries, letters, sketch books, portraits and miniatures, ephemera
- a transcription of handwritten items
- identification of people, places, and also the political, social, economic history of the era (approximately 1760-1845)
- “getting the word out” through blog spots, journal, magazine and local history articles
- finding obscure sources, including private collectors, for single items that once belonged to the Smiths, Goslings and friends/family
- tracking down book citations
- tracking down oblique references to family members in printed or manuscript sources
- obtaining copies (xerox, digital photographs, microfilm) of relevant source material (thereby owing great debts to many blog readers)
- corresponding with lots of libraries, record offices, and other depositories
- TONS of internet searching
- accepting the help of anyone who offers (see “obtaining copies”)
- asking for help, when the distance is too great to make a personal visit (ditto)
- spending precious hours/days/weeks at wonderful libraries and archives
- typing-transcribing-writing-rewriting-proofing-searching-questioning-rewriting-proofing
No research assistants – No typists – No funding = A One-Man Band!
More Jane Austen Portrait News
Kate in Norfolk sent the following link, about the Rice Portrait: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2156805/The-teenage-Jane-Austen-Fresh-evidence-divisive-portrait-13-year-old-girl-really-loved-author.html
TheDaily Mail’s story undoubtedly gives the family some encouragement about authenticity. Although, it also sheds light on the possible artist!
Read the article, then visit the “Rice Portrait” website. For more on Paula Byrne’s “Austin” portrait, see her website.
Art History News discusses “written” IDs on works, which rather echoes my own thoughts – especially after the Byrne portrait’s incongruous handwriting (see earlier posts on that portrait for a picture of the inscription Miss Jane Austin).
Two Teens in the Time of Austen 