Travels with Lady Anne
Some time ago the mailbox contained the lovely biography of Lady Anne Barnard by Stephen Taylor entitled Defiance: in the U.S. the subtitle is “The Extraordinary Life of Lady Anne Barnard“; in the U.K. its subtitle is the more enticing “The Life and Choices of Lady Anne Barnard“. I love, too, the cover art – which includes a depiction by Lady Anne of life aboard ship.
But as my blog, Two Teens in the Time of Austen, deals so much with original letters and diaries, my main comments today will be about three volumes – available on the used book market – that have arrived in the past week or two.
These volumes, published by the Van Riebeeck Society, cover the the years this valiant, diary-keeping Scotswoman spent in South Africa. The dust jacket on the U.S. edition mistakes Lady Anne’s date of birth, which is 1750, making her nearing the age of 50 when she undertakes to follow her husband to the Cape of Good Hope.
The first volume (VRS second series No. 24) are Lady Anne’s own “revised” diaries, and are therefore called The Cape Journals of Lady Anne Barnard, 1797-1798, edited by A.M. Lewin Robinson (with Margaret Lenta and Dorothy Driver), published in 1994 (for 1993). This is broken into three “journals,” which includes the sea journey (thus the drawing on the U.K. cover of Defiance); the “residence” ; and a tour into the “interior of Africa”. Extras include a literary assessment of Lady Anne’s work.
The two further volumes (VRS second series Nos. 29 & 30) publish her extant diaries: The Cape Diaries of Lady Anne Barnard, 1799-1800 (vols. 1 and 2), edited by Margaret Lenta and Basil Le Courdeur (1999 for 1998; and 1999).
This far-away land is a fairly new departure for me — though for a later traveler to Africa, see the published diaries of Mabel Hall-Dare, a relation to the Smiths & Goslings.
I am looking forward to spending some down-time with the warm-hearted Lady Anne Barnard. Whether you start with Taylor’s biography, or end with it, the quartet makes for weeks of reading.
Regency Town House
I first mentioned The Regency Town House in 2017, when telling readers about a free PDF download of Profiles of the Past. The link still works! So visit the University of Brighton if “silhouettes, fashion, and image” from 1760 to 1960 interests you.
I first found The Regency Town House website when I stumbled up the Bevan and Dewar Family letters. These were provided to The Regency Town House by a descendant, Patrick Baty – an historical paint consultant.
Two groups of letters are presented – one dating from the 1820s to 1840s; a later group, which covers the Crimean War, date from 1856 to 1870. Interestingly, The mother of Silvanus Bevan III was Elizabeth Barclay; yes, the Barclays Bank family. It was with Barclays that the banking firm of Goslings and Sharpe (the family firm of my diarist, Mary Gosling (sister-in-law to my second diarist, Emma Austen) amalgamated. Small world at times.
The website features short family biographies and also family trees.
You can click on individual letters to read the transcription – as well as explore the images of each original handwritten letter!
But back to The Regency Town House itself.
“The Regency Town House is a grade I listed terraced house in the heart of Brunswick Town, a Georgian estate in the City of Brighton & Hove on the Sussex coast. It was built in the mid-1820s.”
The volunteers working – in the restoration of this period property, as well as(obviously) the running of the museum, are to be applauded! Dedicated. Enthusiastic. These are only a few of the words one takes away from a visit to The Regency Town House website – so imagine an actual visit to No. 13 Brunswick Square!
NB: My Smiths & Goslings have connections to Brunswick Terrace, which fronts the sea and runs across the “end” of Brunswick “Square”.
An interesting, and useful, part of the website is called The Regency Town House Characters. This includes links to (more) letters and diaries.
Postal History: Ride Mail Rail
A friend recently rode the Mail Rail attached to the Postal Museum in London. She described great fun, and also a great learning experience. The tunnels utilized are original to the Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant sorting office.
Of course, the original trains moved mail not people – but the Mail Rail takes visitors back in time by sharing stories from the past. The rail once kept mail “coursing through London for 22 hours a day” – Astounding!
My Smiths & Goslings, who loved to tour the marvels of industry, would have been at the “head of the queue” for obtaining tickets.
Jane Austen BookBenches
“Sitting with Jane” was a summertime (17 June-30 August) installation of artist-produced benches that created a 24-stop Jane Austen trail. Last month (15 September 2017) the benches were sold at auction, raising funds for The Ark Cancer Centre Charity.
WHERE will the Jane Austen Trail benches turn up next?!?
I wish I had found this project earlier! The “Trail” looks so fun…
If you’re an ‘app’-person, there’s an app for it: available (or was available…) on iTunes and Google Play. The rest of us can “follow” on an old-fashioned MAP.
For those of us now having to let our eyes do the walking online, there ARE illustrations of the benches.
This bench, entitled DANCING WITH JANE, by Michelle Heron, was situated outside the Milestones Museum in Basingstoke.
As you see, the benches were “open books” in design, and the artists got to embellish them any way they wished. Michelle Heron was “inspired by regency dancing and the balls that Jane and characters in her novels attended, with a backdrop of a manuscript from her last fully completed novel, Persuasion.”
JANE AND HER FORGOTTEN PEERS, by Amy Goodman, was situated near Winchester Cathedral – where _I_ have enjoyed several “dining with Jane Austen” meals (though not on the Jane Austen bench, of course). Caroline Fairbairne painted TWO benches, one located in Chawton (entitled CHAWTON WOODWALK); while the other graced the area of Steventon Church (DO YOU DANCE, MR. DARCY?).
Oakley Hall (home of the Bramstons in Jane Austen’s time) gave people the opportunity of WAITING FOR MR. DARCY (by Traci Moss). But I must admit to rather liking the refreshing joke behind Mik Richardson‘s ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY? at Worting House.
Please don’t sit on my book!
Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister
I just ordered a book I’ve waited several months for its publication (see what it is), and tonight I find another that “I can’t wait to read!”
We all will have to wait until OCTOBER – by which time it will be JASNA AGM time for those going to Huntington Beach, CA.
Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen, by Sheila Johnson Kindred is EXACTLY what I love to read – Fanny, the wife of Charles Austen (Jane’s youngest brother), was a “naval wife”. Letters exist which give voice to Fanny’s experiences in Bermuda, Nova Scotia, and (of course) England.
“Fanny’s articulate and informative letters – transcribed in full for the first time and situated in their meticulously researched historical context – disclose her quest for personal identity and autonomy, her maturation as a wife and mother, and the domestic, cultural, and social milieu she inhabited.”
“Enhanced by rarely seen illustrations, Fanny’s life story is a rich new source for Jane Austen scholars and fans of her fiction, as well as for those interested in biography, women’s letters, and history of the family.”
Hazel Jones (Jane Austen & Marriage) calls Fanny Palmer Austen an “unsung heroine” and she finds Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister “the first extensive study to focus on a man’s naval career from a woman’s perspective.”
- Read about “Austens in Halifax” on Sarah Emsley‘s website
To whet your appetite, sample some of Fanny’s letters in Deborah Kaplan’s book Jane Austen Among Women.
- See more on Fanny Palmer Austen @ Two Teens
Hamilton at Work in London
This was the scene Last Sunday, at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London:
As you can see, the refurbishment – HAMILTON is to open in October of 2017 – is underway, yet also under-wraps. This (below) was the street scene in the past:
This past summer, stories ran about the refurbishment, including this article in The Guardian, which claims a £30 million price tag.
I must admit, having been in New Jersey (near the site of the Hamilton/Burr duel), and taking in the lyrics so in praise of New York City (“in the greatest city in the world”), it feels as if a little will be lost in translation. NOT that I think fans won’t be queuing for MILES to get tickets.
For once, the BRITISH look forward to something AMERICAN coming to them after being a ‘hit’ in the States (the shoe is usually on the other foot).
FABULOUS Thames Trip (online)
Last night, searching for biographical information about the Sharpe family, as well as trying to RE-find a book on London Bankers (which I had had to interlibrary loan, once upon a time… Thanks, Internet!!), I came across this WONDERFULLY evocative Trip down (or up) the Thames.
This is what I first stumbled upon, notice of Rothbury House “now” [in 1829] occupied by “Benjamin Sharpe, a wealthy banker, and his family.” There were at least TWO Benjamin Sharpe partners at Goslings & Sharpe (not sure how much they overlapped) – father and son.
I hadn’t noticed last night that the image darkens everything EXCEPT the dwelling being considered. (VERY useful.) What _I_ noticed was the FABULOUS “painting” of the villas and woods and scenes that I could “sail” past. Like this Chiswick vista,
I strongly recommend the website and project, Panorama of the Thames. A digitized 1829 panorama from London to Richmond, you can catch a whole ride on the river (press the “restart” button on the screen), or dip in at any point you wish to see (press the “Back to River Map” button). Historians will appreciate the Georgian London tour. ALL travellers and London-fans will thoroughly enjoy the 2014 panorama in photos! Although it’s hard not to lament when one sees side-by-side Battersea Church surrounded by trees and Battersea Church overtaken by tower blocks!
Anne Rushout’s Sketchbook
One of the MANY (many….) people peppering the Smith & Gosling papers is Anne Rushout, a beauty painted several times, and an artist of some merit. I first wrote about her when a search turned up a rather extravagant gavel price for a portrait of Anne and her sisters – Regency “It” Girls – all three of whom figure tangentially in my research, depending on which family members one follows.
The eagle-eyes of author Charlotte Frost (Sir William Knighton: The Strange Career of a Regency Physician) spotted this new-ish blog (thanks, Charlotte!) under the delightful name of Wicked William – which has posted two series of Anne’s watercolors (click on photo).
While there, I also invite readers to also check-out WHY William was “wicked”….
* Anne Rushout’s “Regency Tour“, from which comes the View of the Mersey (above)
* Anne Rushout’s Wanstead
* and a little background info on the Rushout sisters, especially Anne
Updated “Walks Through Regency London”
Louise Allen‘s website mentions not only the sale-thru-mail of her delightfully-handy booklet, Walks Through Regency London, it also announces an updated Kindle version is now available at Amazon (only $2.99!) and Amazon.uk – you’ll enjoy these ten walks immensely.
Don’t have a Kindle? there are FREE reading apps available. I have one for my computer! Other apps for Cloud Reader, MACs, Blackberry, iPad – and more.
Louise also is the author of Walking Jane Austen’s London: A Tour Guide for the Modern Traveller. This, too, available from an Amazon near you.
- For more see “Maps & Prints“
Etna Erupts: Lord Ossory’s diary for 1832
These last few weeks I have had the pleasure of transcribing TWO diaries — thanks to Kildare and Pat. The miracle is that both came to me within days, and both cover the same 1832 trip take by Drummond Smith (Emma’s youngest brother), Lord Ossory (John Butler, later: the 2nd Marquess of Ormonde), and Edward Odell (of Carriglea).
I’ve written about this trip before, because Odell seemed to be confessing to a friend that he — and “Smith” — had determined to continue travelling, going on to Egypt, Asia Minor and Persia! DID MAMMA SMITH KNOW? was my burning question. Alas, she never got the chance to permit (or not) further travels: Drummond died in Palermo, aged only 20.
Among the last scenery Drummond witnessed?
For a later post, will be the mystery of WHO transcribed Drummond’s 1832 journal and letters; the handwriting is not his – and seems to match none of his siblings either.
For this post, though, because I’ve been transcribing Lord Ossory’s fascinating account of being at Etna’s 1832 eruption, only days after it began (and that was on All Souls Day, November 2; Drummond died three days later, on the 5th of November), I wanted to take a look at his book account of the same.
* READ Lord Ossory’s published account, An Autumn in Sicily (1850)
Well might the place be called the Fondaco della {Nacilla?}, for I never was so tormented by fleas in all my life, or more glad to get up at ½ past 5. After eating some breakfast we got off at ¼ to 7. I walked the first part of the way. We got on very slowly on a most infernal road for four hours, up hill all the way, and to add to our pleasure we were enveloped in a thick mist, & small rain. It was extremely cold. We passed thro a Bosco of some of the only good trees I saw in Sicily. Oak. Ash & Beech. We could hear the gunning from Etna very distinctly Exactly like the previous day. Having forded the river Alcantara about ½ a dozen times, we got to Randazzo at 1 passing thro the small village of S. Domenico on the top of the hill. We went to the Fondaco got some thing to eat and as carriages were to be got – the beasts were tired we unloaded got into a thing drawn by three horses & rattled off to Bronte. The road was very good & we got on well. About 3 miles from Bronte we saw the lava running, & the trees on fire The noise was very great. We performed the 12 miles in about two hours, & got there at 4. The inn had only one room about 12 feet by 9. They said they could put 4 or 5 beds into it if we wished. We only wished them good morning, & got a private house next door. the room was very clean but unfurnished the man having secured his goods in case of accidents. We got a guide & set off to the Lava. An old stream reaches to within half a mile of Bronte. We walked over this for nearly 3 miles where the new lava was. The sight was a most extraordinary & fearful one. The stream was semicircular of about a mile in breadth, and advancing rapidly. The pace depends naturally on the lie of the ground but it is sure to get over every thing. It appeared to be about from 30 to 50 feet in depth. I do not know exactly how to describe the appearance of it. Perhaps the best idea may be formed by imagining a hill of about the height I have mentioned. The top of which is continually falling to the bottom & as constantly replaced. The lava is not liquid, but rolls down in large masses, & tho the outside is blackish, yet every stone that falls leaves a fiery trail behind for the moment. The noise of the falling lava resembled water. One block fell close to where we stood. It could not have weighed less than a ton. We lit segars from it. The stream advanced principally in two directions North & West. From the first no danger was apprehended but the second had its head straight for Bronte. We heard that several hundred people were employed at a sort of bastion to arrest it, but did not see it. I doubt if human means could resist it. The principal pattern of the whole was the idea that it gave of irresistible force. It did not come on fast except comparatively. we went close to it & pushed out hot bits with our sticks but still on it came changing the whole face of the country. Making hills were [sic: where] valleys had been, changing the face of the country and overwhelming all the works of man, leaving all behind one black rough mass of hard & barren lava. The Borea whence it issued was not visible from the stream of Lava. Before leaving it, I took some observations as to the positions of trees to be able to judge of the process of it. As we returned to the town the appearance of the lava in the dark was beautiful. It had advanced already 10 miles from the Crater.
Two Teens in the Time of Austen 