Jane Austen’s Letters: Letter 46, Tues, 27 Aug 1805, from Goodnestone Farm

Miss Austen Regrets: scene of Jane leaving Godmersham in 1814, Edward Byrdges (Hugh Bonneville), Edward and Fanny Austen (Pip Torrens and Imogen Poots) and all wave goodbye

Dear friends and readers,

Last week we had quite a letter (45): mortification upon problem. Austen couldn’t pay the servants, she couldn’t afford the hairdresser and was beholden to him for a cheap rate for a tiny cut; she longs to escape to Goodnestone and is abetted by Elizabeth Austen Knight (glad to see the back of her and eager to have Cassandra instead), but Harriot Brydges has let Jane know she really doesn’t want her there either. She must defy her. She warns Cassandra about how she will appear too: her dress is apparently going to be a give away.

In the letters Austen tries to joke about her poverty and at moments seems to manage it. When she’s at Godmersham and Goodnestone she is living in a highly prestigious comfortable house. But remember her audience is Cassandra. Her letters are openable all around the family too. We only get her full mind in her novels. There we have The Watsons as testimony of how she felt about her poverty. No joking matter at all. Everyone in the family preying on one another. The miseries of social life rituals used to put one another down.

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Imogen Poots as Fanny with all the Austen Knight children

There is some interim matter not recorded in the letters we must pay attention to: On August 24th Jane was at Godmersham and Cassandra at Goodnestone. From Fanny Knight’s diary entry (as recorded by LeFaye in her Family Record) it would appear Cassandra traveled on the 25th from Goodnestone to Godmersham, and had a day of playing-acting with Jane and Anne and the others at Godmersham on the 26:

Wednesday, the 26th: “Aunts and Grandmama played at school with us. Aunt Cassandra was Mrs Teachum the Governess Aunt Jane, Miss Popham the Teacher Aunt Harriet, Sally the Housemaid, Miss Sharpe, the Dancing master the Apothecary and the Serjeant. Grandmama Better Jones the Pie woman, and Mama the Bathing Woman. They dressed in Character and we had a most delightful day -After dessert we acted a Play called ‘Virtue Rewarded’ . Anna was Duchess St Albans, I was the Fairy Serena and Fanny Cage a Shepherdess ‘Mona’. We had a Bowl of Syllabub in the evening.”

Then on the 27th Jane traveled away; went to Canterbury and then reached Goodnestone at half past four. She thought that dinner would be at five, but, as we shall see, that is not to be. Harriot Foote found a letter from Louisa Hatton asking her and the Brydges brothers to come to a ball at Deal, the Eastwell family were going and would make use of Rowling and Harriot is in a state of “great agitation.”

Now who was at Goodnestone Park at the time: Elizabeth Austen’s oldest sister, Fanny (1771 to 5 May 1805) had died after the April 21-23 letter (44). Her husband, Lewis Cage, died the 11th of January, 1805 — the same month as Mr. Austen’s death. They left two daughters, Fanny and Sophia, who were, now, living with their grandmother, Lady Bridges at Goodnestone Farm.

Mary Lloyd Austen, James’s wife had not been having a good time this summer. She was about to give birth to Caroline, and making Anna, James’s older daughter, feel it. So twelve year old Anna was brought to Godmersham too. Caroline was born June 20th.

And Edward Brydges was there too.

Hugh Bonneville as Edward Brydges talking to Olivia Williams as Jane Austen, supposed 1814, Godmersham (2008 Miss Austen Regrets)

David Nokes in his JA has some paragraphs on Bridges and Harriot and the life at Godmersham and Goodnestone over these weeks which may be worth taking into account. He does not notice or mention how poor Austen was in comparison with her hosts and takes Austen to be having a wonderful time — except for the play-acting! He conceives it was all Fanny’s idea. I imagine he cannot accept that Austen could stand to act out this text, and he also remembers Austen’s dislike of “ignorant schoolmistresses” so assumes Austen could not enjoy acting out one.

But apparently a number of these skits were done. Beyond Virtue Rewarded there was The Spoilt Child and Innocence Rewarded. The titles suggest dire didactic texts and I agree it’s hard to imagine having fun with them unless you don’t take them seriously at all or make fun of them — as the Austen family had Grandison in their playlet of that name.

I don’t agree with Nokes that the playacting was forced. But I do think Fanny Austen Knight incapable of seeing the atmosphere fully and if she did see it, she wouldn’t record it. LeFaye often rewrite texts to make them sweeter than what they are. This one is of course a young girl’s text and Fanny is obtuse. Still as LeFaye continually her in book paraphrases in ways that take away from the original passages their undercurrents, bites and uncomfortableness I would not take this quotation as an accurate mirror. It’s said that Austen when acting out was once good at a back-biting women characters.

And I credit Austen with this much: that she saw the intense didacticism and solemnity of Fielding, the bullying if you will, the girls’ cruelties to one another. She does not allude to Fielding in Emma: it’s Madame de Genlis who is infinitely more conscious, modern, psychologically aware than Fielding in Adele et Theodore (which I again recommend). That Austen rejected these didactic things comes out in her response to Forbes sermons and her desire to never read Hannah More’s novel, Caleb in Search of a Wife.

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Goodnestone Park (modern photograph)

And what do we find? a comedy of avoidance going on over there at Goodnestone No longer an outsider, but an insider to “great scenes of agitation” and “much to be endured and done before we sat down to table.” Jane Austen is not the only person dreading these supposedly fun balls and elegant places to stay. Harriot is after all quite reconciled to Jane because she comes to her “in great perplexity.” She has had an invite from a grand lady (Forbes) and the last thing she wants is to go.

Another sentence: “There is no chance of tickets for the Mr Brydges. as no gentlemen but of the garrison are invited.” Only local military males. This sentence placed there suggests that Harriot didn’t want to go because no brother would be there and only military.

How to get out of it? “At length, after many debates,” Austen persuades Harriot to accept but at least she hopes to avoid “dressing and sleeping at Dover.” Austen says surely Miss Elizabeth Hatton offered that because she’s assume (“all but sure”) Harriot would want that.

I find it interesting that going involved having a ticket. Apparently then there was some method of exclusion at the door which was impersonal. It would not have been enough to have this invite; one needed a ticket. Lady Forbes is all hospitality: Harriot can stay at Dover both before and after.

(Harriot claims to say no on Marianne’s account. It seems therefore to me it’s confirmed this Harriot is not Harriot Foote but Harriot Brydges whose sister was Marianne.)

“I think Miss H. would not have written such a letter if she had not been all but sure of it, and a little more.” This then combines with the apparent contradiction of the next: “I am anxious on the subject, for the fear of being in the way if they do not come to give Harriot a conveyance.” The overlooked sentence suggests that after all maybe Austen thought Harriot was posing or felt she would have to go and _she Austen would be in the way_. I was puzzled by this on the first reading.

She worries Harriot will want to go, does want to go and her being there will prevent Harriot since Harriot can’t take both of them nor is it nice to leave her flat.

It seems Harriot is a bundle of contradictions, not the easiest person to deal with. When Austen was originally planning to go to Goodnestone Harriot made her feel as if Harriot didn’t want her there, and she had to defy this feeling to go. Now Austen has arrived, and Harriot is treating her as an intimate with whom she can be sincere, but we see that Austen does not believe in this sincerity. Harriot is one of these people who plays games with others.

So Austen presses to go home on Thursday (though note she has just arrived), but Harriot would not hear of that.

Not so funny this: pathetical that Austen says her one real worry is her “fear of being in the way if they do not come to give Harriot conveyance.” That is, she hopes Harriot gets a ride because if not Harriot will have to get there some other way and it might be that Jane Austen will be seen as an incumbrance — someone that Harriot has to find room for or stay with lest she be alone. My guess is Austen fears being used, sticking out. Always dangerous. People will either openly or silently laugh at her, resent her, despise her. Maybe she fears that Harriot might turn on her. So she proposes and pressed to be allowed to go home on Thursday — the day before.

Home? Lodgings in Bath? Or Edward’s Godmersham?

But Harriot would not hear of it and after all Harriot is in charge, the person with the right to be in this house not Jane. Such people drive me mad. What Austen’s real problem is she doesn’t have a home or space she can truly call her own to retreat from such people.

So if Jane is visibly poor, those like Harriot who still can’t keep up with the very grand aren’t eager — or maybe it’s that Harriot was getting on (like Jane) and would be seen as an old maid at the ball or just didn’t enjoy balls. Not that she’s that keen on Austen’s presence except as a buffer for later in the letter we hear how Harriot is eager to have Edward come to “fetch” Austen. That’s Austen’s brother. Remember how she can’t go anywhere without some male escort.

It took time to fabricate the lies properly to Lady F and answer for Miss H so they didn’t get to dinner until 6.

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Again Miss Austen Regrets conceives Edward Brydges and Jane Austen as having a thwarted romance (Godmesham, 1814)

Now comes the pleasant part of the letter:

We were agreeably sur­prised by Edward Bridges’s company to it [dinner]. He had been, strange to tell, too late for the cricket match, too late at least to play himself, and, not being asked to dine with the players, came home. It is impossible to do justice to the hospitality of his attentions towards me; he made a point of ordering toasted cheese for supper entirely on my account. We had a very agreeable evening, and here I am before breakfast writing to you, having got up between six and seven …

So some real relaxation and civility from Edward Brydges: this is one of the letters that has been used to suggest Byrdges courted Jane. We saw very early on how he led Jane in the 1790s in a dance; we’ve heard in the previous letter that he was eager to have her over; and now he is hospitality itself, actually ordering toasted cheese entirely on her account.

Was she looking bad? hungry? was he being kind? everyone else decidedly uneager? then again maybe he did like her

Miss Austen Regrets: Jane at Breakfast (Godmersham in MAR, not Goodnestone)

So now it’s early morning before breakfast and we get topics of what’s to come and a reference to the lifestyle of the people and place which Jane much prefers to Godmersham; at Goodnestone all is for use and comfort.

A melange: There’s the sick old lady and Cassandra is told to tell Elizabeth that she did not get a chance to give Elizabeth’s letter to Harriot until they were in the carriage. I should say not. But then Harriot “received it with great delight” and took “comfort” from it. This does not sound like the same woman, does it? Maybe Jane saying this to make all smooth or maybe by that time Harriot had had her news of Gloucester and been freed.

A neat vignette of Mrs Austen re-arranging and fixing Lady Bridge’s bookcase and corner shelves upstairs — the second or third floor?

The Knatchbulls are mentioned: Austen remembers they are at Godmersham. Who were they? they were wealthy baronets and it was into this family Fanny Austen Knight married eventually. I’m not sure what is the tone of the second half sentence about Harriot constrained to give up all hope of Edward fetching Jane: that’s plain enough – Harriot was not keen on Jane’s coming, whatever her professions Jane does not think she’s keen on Jane staying lest Jane get in the way of a coming trip and ball. But why this connects to the Knatchbull’s being at Godmersham on Thursday I haven’t the foggiest, except somehow it’s connected to said ball, for the next line is Jane’s relief at the Duke of Gloucester’s death (she does like to be iconoclastic) since it will obviate Harriot’s having to go to the ball is ironic. Jane thinks that Harriot wants to go. The dozens of hearts aching are those who dreamed of marrying him I suppose, but Jane says she was certainly not one of these (again I thought of Donoghue’s suggestion of self-aware lesbian spinsterhood for those in patterns like Jane Austen’s).

And then after all that the Duke of Gloucester died after all. Set Jane’s heart at ease — and for now Harriot is spared after all. She need not take any of these invitations up. Whew! and Austen will not be in the way. Even better. So she can join in best love to all at Godmersham. Of course best love to Elizabeth and all from Harriot, especially two Edwards (father and son)

The Cages now come up: Sophie was one of two little girls Lady Bridges took in after the parents died. The Cages were part of this fringe group of pseudo-gentry (pseudo refers to their not owning any property but related to those who do); little Sophie is grateful to Lizzie for the “little bird” and promises Marianne Austen Knight a doll the next time she comes.

These first names repeat one another. Harriot Brydges and Foote; Marianne Austen Knight and Marianne Brydges.

The Brydges males please Jane: John brings a “good account” of people at Ramsgate (holiday place). Nackington was the home of the Milles family near Canterbury.

They are to dine at four so there will be time to walk afterwards, now two and Harriot has letters to write — she commandeers how her guest spends her time.

The explanation for why Marianne is an excuse to take up the invitation is in the PS: she had “the sickness” and is now better with only a headache her “chief complaint.” Henry is Henry Brydges who says the headache comes from her sickness.

So by the end of the letter Austen is talking comfortably. She does prefer this place with all its particular agitations to being among the super-rich where Cassandra now is.

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Austen watching for someone coming (Miss Austen Regrets)

I again come back to the older view of Austen — first found in Henry James. That some of the artistry is conscious must be — as in Emma. But much is deeply intuitive and she creates portraits she herself has no language to understand with. That really means she does not understand. It’s not true the way I sometimes excuse her online that others didn’t have it. Lots of the French did (Genlis for example), Scott understood but he couldn’t create. He does say he can’t make real people — in his diaries are these scintillating portraits of people in the axiomatic style. Nothing like this anywhere in Austen. One reason her letters are dull.

A general picture emerges of a woman who prefers to avoid social life. This has been noticed repeatedly. I agree with the pre-cult (pre-1980s) readers that she was not social, only within her family. Henry Austen’s portrait suggests this in his defensiveness — “those who knew her” suggests few did. Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield have an insightful article about the first thing all Austen movies do is get rid of that. Most of the movies are pro-social life — and pro-family. A rare exception is Ruby in Paradise, but that’s a remarkable independent film-maker Nunez. I’d say recently there’s been a change with the 2005 P&P, 2008 S&S and 2009 Emma showing us characters who prefer solitude and are more than awkward in public.

Perhaps Tom Hollander as Mr Collins (2005 P&P) gives us the strongest performance in this direction: he doesn’t make eye-contact

Second, I don’t agree Austen’s insightful about people. She could present character types with intuitive brilliance. But characters are not people and many of hers are caricature or two-dimensional. In her letters she is seeing people most of them clearly in a way but entirely from her point of view. She is often obtuse and says she is awkward in public. A recent letter by her referred to her “continual scrapes.”

I know that I am thinking about Aspergers Syndrome nowadays but I see strong traits. I don’t claim this for other writers. It comes from reading the letters and yes Bottomer’s book.

See Letters 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 and 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40-42, 43, 44; 45

Ellen