Join me on my Sense and Sensibility tour of London!

A few weeks ago, I visited London and decided to tour some of the locations mentioned in Sense and Sensibility, which is largely set in London. 

At Jane Austen's time, central London was concentrated on a much smaller area, and the most fashionable district was between the Piccadilly, Mayfair and Hyde Park area. 

Portman Square was one of the fashionable spots to live. 

Portman Square

The square was built in the Georgian times by John Berkely Portman, MP, and it has a large garden in the middle and is surrounded by townhouses. Many of the original buildings were bombed during the war, but number 20, "Home House" (pictured above), remains. 

Upper Berkeley Street off Portman Square is where Elinor and Marianne stay with Mrs Jennings. Jane writes: “Since the death of her husband, who had traded with success in a less elegant part of the town, she had resided every winter in a house in one of the streets near Portman-square”.

Upper Berkeley Street 

Jane describes Mrs Jennings as follows: "Mrs. Jennings, Lady Middleton's mother, was a good-humoured, merry, fat, elderly woman, who talked a great deal, seemed very happy, and rather vulgar."  Prone to gossip and match-making, Mrs Jennings would have enjoyed staying at a fashionable location like this where she could socialise and form networks with other ladies of a similar class.

Mrs Jennings' town house is likely to have been a large, comfortable establishment. Jane writes: "The house was handsome, and handsomely fitted up, and the young ladies were immediately put in possession of a very comfortable apartment."

Upper Berkeley Street 

Mayfair is where the wealthiest residents lived, and it still remains an affluent part of the city where few people can afford to live. Logically, Jane Austen placed some of her wealthier characters in this part of the city. Hanover Square at the heart of Mayfair is where Mrs Jennings' daughter, Mrs Palmer, and Mr Palmer live. 

Hanover Square

The square is named after the House of Hanover, the German family of the king, and St George's Church here was a popular place for weddings. (Interestingly, the author of the Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe, is buried here too!). 

This square was built in the Georgian times and still retains a Georgian feel, although the square is now a mix of Georgian and more modern architecture. 

Hanover Square

We then move on to Conduit Street off Regent Street where Mrs Jennings' older daughter, Lady Middleton, stays with her husband, Sir John Middleton. 

Conduit Street 

Elinor and Marianne visit the Middletons here, and the two Miss Steeles stay here as guests of the Middletons. Conduit Street appears to have been a more desirable address than their own: "At this time the two Miss Steeles, lately arrived at their cousin's house in Bartlett Buildings, Holborn, presented themselves again before their more grand relations in Conduit and Berkeley Street; and were welcomed by them all with great cordiality."

Conduit Street 

It's rather difficult to photograph this street due to heavy traffic! It is a very busy street, and there are many designer shops (such as Vivienne Westwood) and other high-end stores here.

Moving on to Sackville Street off Piccadilly, which is another street built in the Georgian times that retains some of its period feel.

Sackville Street

41 Sackville Street is the location of the real-life Gray's jewellers, a fashionable and expensive jeweller at the time. Elinor and Marianne visit Gray's to exchange some of their mother's old jewellery, only to find the shop crowded and having to wait a long time for a young man to make his choice. This young man happens to be Robert Ferrars, the younger brother of Edward Ferrars. 

"But the correctness of his eye, and the delicacy of his taste, proved to be beyond his politeness. He was giving orders for a toothpick -case for himself, and till its size, shape, and ornaments were determined, all of which, after examining and debating for a quarter of an hour over every toothpick-case in the shop, were finally arranged by his own inventive fancy, he had no leisure to bestow any other attention on the two ladies, than what was comprised in three or four very broad stares." The girls' first impression of Robert Ferrars can't have been that favourable!

Old Bond Street

Around the corner, also situated off Piccadilly, is Old Bond Street where Elinor and Marianne often shop with Mrs Jennings and socialise. As in Jane Austen's time, this is still a designer shopping hub for the very wealthy and famous and a place "to be seen". While out shopping, Marianne is always watching out for Willoughby: "Wherever they went, she was evidently always on the watch. In Bond Street especially, where much of their business lay, her eyes were in constant inquiry; and in whatever shop the party were engaged, her mind was equally abstracted from everything actually before them, from all that interested and occupied the others."

Willoughby rents rooms in Bond Street and sometimes avoids Elinor and Marianne when he notices them out shopping. He later tells Elinor: "I watched you safely out of the house one morning, and left my name... You would be surprised how often I watched you, how often I was on the point of falling in with you. I have entered many a shop to avoid your sight, as the carriage drove by. Lodging as I did in Bond Street, there was hardly a day in which I did not catch the glimpse of one or other of you;  and nothing but the most constant watchfulness on my side, a most invariably prevailing desire to keep out of your sight, could have separated us so long. I avoided the Middletons as much as possible, as well as everybody else who was likely to prove an acquaintance in common." 

It is here at Old Bond Street that Willoughby writes the letter that breaks Marianne's heart and makes her very ill. 

 "Bond Street, January 

MY DEAR MADAM, -- I have just had the honour of receiving your letter, for which I beg to return my sincere acknowledgments. I am much concerned to find there was anything in my behaviour last night that did not meet your approbation; and though I am quite at a loss to discover in what point I could be so unfortunate as to offend you, I entreat your forgiveness of what I can assure you to have been perfectly unintentional. I shall never reflect on my former acquaintance with your family in Devonshire without the most grateful pleasure, and flatter myself it will not be broken by any mistake or misapprehension of my actions. My esteem for your whole family is very sincere; but if I have been so unfortunate as to give rise to a belief of more than I felt, or meant to express, I shall reproach myself for not having been more guarded in my professions of that esteem. That I should ever have meant more you will allow to be impossible, when you understand that my affections have been long engaged elsewhere, and it will not be many weeks, I believe, before this engagement is fulfilled. It is with great regret that I obey your commands of returning the letters, with which I have been honoured from you, and the lock of hair, which you so obligingly bestowed on me."

Opposite Bond Street is St James Street where Marianne's "saviour", Col Brandon stays when he is in town. This was a location of many gentlemen's clubs and close to St James' Palace, a royal residence. This was also close to Pall Mall, where Edward Ferrars has his lodgings. 

Finally, I end my tour at Kensington Gardens where Elinor goes for a walk with Mrs Jennings.

The sunken gardens.

Kensington Palace, which was used by the royal family then as it is now.

At Kensington Gardens, Elinor comes across the elder Miss Steele. At the insistence of Mrs Jennings, Miss Steele reveals a secret about her sister, Lucy's engagement to Edward Ferrars. This is a turning point in the novel, sending Elinor into emotional turmoil and forcing her to rethink her own hopes and dreams. 

Further reading:

My erstwhile tour of Jane Austen's London: https://austenised.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-footsteps-of-jane-in-london.html

Helpful guides to Jane Austen's London: 

Edwards, A-M. (1991) In the Steps of Jane Austen - Walking Tours of Austen's England. Jones Books. 

Quint, K. (2019) Jane Austen's England - A Travel Guide. ACC Art Books. 

"Scrambling...into a little education without without any danger of coming back prodigies" - Exploring Jane Austen's Classroom in Reading

In a previous post, I discussed boys' boarding school life at the time of Jane Austen. Have you ever wondered what life was like for school girls in Georgian times? In this post, I will tell you more about girls' boarding school life, having re-visited Jane Austen's school in Reading. 

You may already have read my previous blog about Jane Austen's schooling here at Reading and my previous visit to the Abbey Gateway and Reading Abbey. This year, marking 250 years since the birth of Jane Austen, many towns in the UK have been celebrating her life, and Reading is no exception. Reading Museum has hosted a series of talks about Jane Austen this spring/summer, and I recently attended a talk about her education by Jane Austen Society member, Joy Pibworth, at the Reading Abbey Gateway where Jane briefly went to school.

The Abbey Gateway at the time of Jane Austen taken from the North side. Image: The Yale Centre for British Art.

The Abbey gateway now.

It was very interesting to have a closer look at what Jane's classroom may have looked like and to hear what Joy Pibworth had to say about Jane's "Scrambling Into a Little Education". We learnt that Jane went to boarding school three times. She first went to school at the age of seven in Oxford in 1783. Jane, Cassandra and their cousin, Jane Cooper, only stayed there for six months until their school mistress, Mrs Cawley, moved her school to Southampton due to a measles outbreak in Oxford. However, this experience was short-lived, as soldiers brought with them an outbreak of typhus, and all the three girls caught the illness and were rescued and brought home by Mrs Cooper (who, sadly, later died of the illness). 

After some time, the Austens started looking for a new boarding school for the girls. Joy Pibworth explained that it was Jane Cooper's father, Rev. Cooper, who was then Vicar of Sonning, who managed to find a new school for the girls in 1785 when Jane was ten years old. Mrs Latournelle's Reading Ladies' Boarding School was advertised in the Reading Mercury newspaper, as was customary at the time. The Austens thought this a good idea, as Rev Cooper lived nearby, and Jane's aunt and uncle, the Leigh Perrots, lived in Wargrave and could help look after the girls. Jane stayed here from 1785 to 1786.

A plaque to commemorate Jane Austen was unveiled in an official ceremony here last month.

Mrs Latournelle wasn't actually French despite her fine name; her name was originally Sarah Hackit, but she used a French name to attract parlour boarders. According to Joy Pibworth, Mrs Latournelle was an eccentric personality who wore traditional clothes and had a "cork leg", i.e. a false leg acquired from Cork Street in London. Her school had a good reputation, and she didn't have to advertise her school much although she owned two (the other one being in Henley, not far from Reading). 

Image of the Abbey Gateway: The Yale Centre for British Art. 

The Abbey Gateway was an attractive gothic style building with gilt balustrades and many nooks and crannies. In true Georgian style, weeds were encouraged to grow through the bricks allowing for a more romantic look. 

    

Gothic style windows.

Jane's father paid 37 pounds 19 shillings (roughly the equivalent of 3400 pounds in today's money) per girl per half year. This amount included board, tuition, learning materials and having their clothes washed. 

The girls were grouped by knowledge rather than age, just like it was customary in the boys' school. The girls attended lessons in the Gateway, and their living quarters were in the building next door to the Gateway built in Queen Anne style (but no longer there). The girls shared bedrooms, and Joy Pibworth explained that there were 4-6 beds in each bedroom. There were 40 bedsteads in the school, giving us an idea of the number of parlour boarders at the school. 

There was a beautiful, old-fashioned garden with tall trees where the girls could spend their evenings after lessons and an artificial embankment from where you could watch the ruins of the abbey. 

Image of the Abbey ruins: The Yale Centre for British Art 

Abbey ruins now.

I believe that studying in a Gothic building and living in such close quarters to a medieval abbey had a profound influence on young Jane Austen and perhaps inspired her when writing Northanger Abbey later in life. 

As Reading Museum has started offering tours of the Reading Abbey Gateway to schoolchildren, the building has been done up to resemble a Victorian-style girls' boarding school classroom. 

In the mornings, after breakfast, the girls would have their lessons in the Gateway, learning sewing, reading and writing and perhaps some French.

The girls also learnt dancing, and Mrs Latournelle would invite guests so that the girls could practise their social skills. Dinner was between 4-5pm, and the girls would have some free time in the evenings. 

Downstairs in the Gateway. There is a small exhibition telling Jane's story here. 

Some girls would hang from windows to watch boys from the boys' school playing outside on the field where Forbury Gardens is now. There had been a boys' school next to the field since 1486. The school was situated in a former Reading Abbey Hospitium (guesthouse) where (in medieval times) visitors to the abbey could stay for two nights when visiting the abbey for services. At the time when Jane was here, the  school's headmaster was Richard Walpy who was a strict disciplinarian, and boys would often get caned. The boys at the school would learn Classics, Maths and Biblical studies, much like the boys at Winchester College. However, Jane was a little too young at this point to mess around with the boys! 

Reading School for the boys in the Hospitium of St John the Baptist. 

It is believed that Jane created Mrs Goddard's school in Emma based on her experience of Mrs Latournelle's school. Jane Austen describes Harriet Smith's school as 'A real old-fashioned Boarding School where a reasonable quantity of accomplishments were sold at a reasonable price and girls might be out of the way and scramble themselves into a little education without any danger of coming back prodigies'. This was Jane's way of saying that the girls learnt a little bit of this and that, but nothing much of value! 

After 18 months, Jane's time at Reading came to an end, and the girls were sent home to be educated there. Perhaps the schooling became too expensive and wasn't considered that important for the girls. Luckily, Jane had access to her father's excellent library and read widely, wrote stories from an early age and only had tuition for music and other special skills from home. Mrs Latournelle's school was later sold and became St Quentin's Grammar School. 

Many thanks to Jo Pibworth and Reading Museum for an informative afternoon and for the wonderful opportunity to visit Jane Austen's classroom. 

Further reading: 

My previous visits to the Reading Abbey Gateway: 

https://austenised.blogspot.com/2018/06/inside-jane-austens-school.html

https://austenised.blogspot.com/2010/08/peek-of-abbey-school.html

To read more about Jane Austen's Reading, click here: 

https://austenised.blogspot.com/2025/03/reading-town-at-time-of-jane-austen.html

To read about Reading Abbey, click here: 

https://austenised.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-abbey-that-sparked-young-jane.html

Steventon Country Fair - Celebrating 250 Years of Jane Austen at "The Cradle of her Genius"

Last Sunday, I was back in Steventon for Steventon Country Fair, a special event held to commemorate 250 years of Jane Austen. There hasn't been a country fair in Steventon for over 50 years, and usually the "Pump Field" where Jane's childhood home, Steventon Rectory, once stood, is closed to visitors and not clearly visible from the road. It was a unique occasion to celebrate Jane at her birthplace and explore the site of Steventon Rectory - the "cradle of her genius" - closer than ever. Therefore I have decided to feature the occasion here in my blog and return to the school topic a little later!

The hay on the field had been cut and the overgrown hedges cut neatly for the occasion. A horse and cart had been brought to the field for "the Arrival of Jane Austen" - one of the highlights of the event where everyone gathered on the field to watch "Jane" arrive.

After that, visitors paraded around the arena in their Regency finest.

There was elegant Regency dancing from the Hampshire Regency Dancers. 

Morris dancing with three different groups performing to traditional folk music helped bring the country fair atmosphere to life. 

Garston Gallopers 

Mayfly Morris 

The highlight of the event for many were the special guests: Historian Dr Lucy Worsley and Adrian Lukis - Mr Wickham from Pride and Prejudice 1995! 

Dr Lucy Worsley

I enjoyed listening to Lucy Worsley's amusing and entertaining stories about the various homes of Jane Austen that she narrated in her usual expressive, cheeky style! 

She also showed us a map of the site during Jane Austen's time and a floor plan of Steventon Rectory, both which were very interesting to see. 

Adrian Lukis (Mr Wickham)

And of course it was wonderful to see Mr Wickham in real life and hear his inside stories in a Q & A about filming Pride and Prejudice. For example, he was asked which character he would choose to play (if he was younger!), and he replied "Mr Collins"! 

Spinning wool

Traditional games, such as axe-throwing, were set up, and traditional craft demonstrations, such as weaving and lace-making gave visitors an idea of village life at the time of Jane Austen. 

Whitchurch Silk Mill team demonstrating weaving on a loom. 

Moreover, there was a number of stalls serving delicious food, some of it made by the villagers. There were also various stalls selling items, such as Regency accessories and books. 

Guests could roam the field freely and peruse the two things left of Steventon Rectory: the now fenced well (hence, the name "Pump Field"), which was situated behind the Rectory, and the impressive lime tree planted in front of the Rectory by Jane's oldest brother, Rev. James Austen, when he was Rector of Steventon. 

Visitors exploring the Pump Field. 

The Old Rectory well. 

James Austen's lime tree. 

From the field, we got a good view of the New Rectory on the opposite field, which was built for Jane's nephew, Rev William Knight, by Edward Austen Knight after the Old Rectory was pulled down in the 1820s. 

The New Rectory 

It felt so incredibly special to be part of this unique event, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it and getting a good view of Jane Austen's birthplace. 

Kudos to the village community who put together this beautiful event, showing excellent community effort!