A Taste of Wintry Weather
Julia Fry
A taste of wintry weather in Gloucestershire
For those of us who have had a wintry week instead of a taste of spring, it’s reassuring to know that early March was unpredictable in Jane Austen’s time also.
On March 2nd 1814 she wrote to Cassandra from their brother Henry’s London home - ‘am now writing by myself at the new table in the front room. It is snowing. - We had some snowstorms yesterday & a smart frost at night.’ On the 7th March she continued ‘Here’s a day! - The ground covered with snow! What is to become of us?….Mr Richard Snow is dreadfully fond of us. I dare say he has stretched himself out at Chawton too.’
(Dick Snow was an associate of Jack Frost)
Let’s hope Mr Richard Snow takes his leave of us now, and doesn’t come visiting again until next winter.
The sparkling prose of Nancy Mitford is the perfect antidote to a dose of shingles.
This drawing shows Jane Austen and her big sister Cassandra gathering greenery to decorate their father's church and their home at Steventon Rectory for Christmas.
Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra, shown in this illustration here waving off their cousin Eliza.
We know that Jane Austen liked to tantalise her family with extra snippets of information about her creations, and she searched for likenesses of Lizzy and Jane Bennet at a portait exhibition in London.
This wonderful Wedgwood plate dates from around 1810. It is a perfect example of the restrained elegance and charm of Wedgwood’s designs. I lifted it down very carefully from the corner cupboard where it lives, and took it out into the garden for an airing.
When Jane Austen visited Bath with her brother Edward and sister-in-law Elizabeth in June 1799 she was as excited as most young women in their early twenties would be at the prospect of shopping.
In the spring of 1801 Jane Austen was coming to terms with the imminent loss of her home at Steventon Rectory and the dispersal of her father’s library
This is my dream house. An early 18th-century Georgian property in Gloucestershire.
An extract from Jane In Winter by Julia Fry.
Have finally finished this fiendishly tricky and wonderful 1000-piece Jane Austen jigsaw puzzle by Barry Falls; a very inspired Christmas present. Jane and all her characters are to be found enjoying themselves outside Chawton Cottage, Pemberley, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, and other Austen locations.
Perfect entertainment for a long and chilly January evening, hunkering down around the fire.
Puzzles were used in the Georgian period as educational tools to teach geography to children by piecing together sections of maps printed onto wood or card. In Mansfield Park the smug Bertram sisters draw attention to the ignorance of their little cousin Fanny Price: ‘Dear Mamma, only think, my cousin, cannot put the map of Europe together’.