Finding Highbury in Jane Austen's Surrey

Have you ever wondered if Jane Austen's fictional locations were inspired by real places? 

There are several places in Surrey that claim to have been inspirations for Highbury in Jane Austen's Emma, and I was recently inspired to visit some of these villages, having read my fellow blogger, Tony Grant's detailed blog post about this area. Janeite Deb also recently visited the area with Tony Grant and shared some detailed blog posts, making me more intrigued! 

Leatherhead

Leatherhead Museum

I started my tour from Leatherhead Museum, which currently has an exhibition for Jane Austen 250. There are some lovely exhibits on display, such as this incredible doll's house portraying Ford's, the draper's featured in Emma. 

Ford's Drapers. Picture Courtesy: Leatherhead Museum Curators Lucy Quinnell and Cathy Brett. 

The museum have collated evidence to prove that Emma was set in this area, and there are detailed quotes from Jane Austen's novels with references to the local area. It's really fascinating to read some of these snippets of local history. I will mention just a few of these, but I highly recommend that you visit this exciting exhibition museum to learn more.

Picture Courtesy: Leatherhead Museum Curators Lucy Quinnell and Cathy Brett. 

For example, Jane Austen describes Highbury as a "large and populous village, almost amounting to a town" (Chapter 1), which resembles the size of Leatherhead at the time. Interestingly, I learned that the names of two key estates in this area were called Highlands and Norbury! Moreover, there was a large timber-framed house here called Randalls on the east bank of River Mole, which was coincidentally owned by Jane Austen's distant relative, Sir John Coghill. If you remember, Randalls is also the name of the estate where Mr and Mrs Weston live in Emma.

Leatherhead

Names of local people are also mentioned in the exhibition, which might have given inspiration to Jane Austen when writing Emma; there was a wealthy girl called Emma Boulton, a local poet called James Woodhouse and  even a Mr Knightly living locally; many other names from Emma have been found in local parish records. 

However, the inn mentioned in Emma (Crown Inn) could point us to nearby Great Bookham, a village that lies in the centre of Surrey, 30km from London Bridge. There is a Crown Inn in the middle of the village. 

Crown Inn (left) in Great Bookham

In Chapter 26, Emma goes on a walk with Frank Churchill and Mrs Weston: "Their first pause was at the Crown Inn, an inconsiderable house, though the principle one of the sort, where a couple of pair of post-horses were kept... in passing it they gave the history of the large ball-room visibly added."

The Crown Inn at Bookham (currently under renovation), as seen from "Austen House". 

We know that Highbury is a populous village but small enough for every villager to know each other and considered "a particularly healthy spot". According to the 1801 and 1811 census, there were 120 people living in Bookham. Bookham also fits in with Jane Austen's description of its location, as it would takes about 7 miles to Box Hill by the old roads, the scene of the disastrous picnic in Emma.  

There is a further, stronger connection that Jane Austen has to Great Bookham. Jane's godfather, Rev Samuel Cooke, was vicar of St Nicolas Church in Great Bookham. In 1768, Samuel Cooke married Cassandra Leigh, a cousin of Jane's mother (who is also also named Cassandra, as is Jane's sister!). 

St Nicolas Church

Samuel Cooke is listed as one of Jane's godparents in the Austen family Bible on the day of her babtism on 5th April 1776: "Born 16th December 1775, received into the Church, 5th April 1776, Rev'd Mr Cooke, Rector of Bookham, Surrey, Mrs J Austen of Sevenoaks, Kent, Father's uncle's wife, Mrs Musgrave of Chinnor, Oxon." (Matts)

Jane first visited the Cookes in Great Bookham on 14th May 1799, staying until the 2nd June. Initially, Jane wasn't excited about the visit, perhaps due to the fact that the family were evangelicals and Jane didn't like the evangelicals at the time. Jane wrote to her sister, "I assure You that I dread the idea of going to Bookham as much as you can do" (Letter 17). However, she used her time here to learn more about the area to collect ideas for her next novel, The Watsons, which is set in nearby Dorking. Sadly, the book was left unfinished, but the fragment does contain several references to this area.  

Interestingly, Jane paid a second visit here in 1814 after she had begun to write Emma. Perhaps this time, she had a task in mind to gain more knowledge about this area so that she could use Bookham as the setting for Emma. 

I found St Nicolas Church right in the middle of the village. Jane would have worshipped in this church several times during her visits here. 

St Nicolas Church

The exterior of the church is similar to how it looked in Jane Austen's times, but the interior is somewhat changed, as there would have been wooden boxed pews here at the time. 

I found a memorial to Samuel Cooke on the left-hand side of the altar. 

There were also information booklets for sale and posters about Bookham's Jane Austen connection. I bought this helpful booklet published by the church council, which is a very interesting read with images and details about Bookham at the time of Jane Austen and other authors who resided in the area. 

From the booklet I learnt that the Cooke family had 11 children of which sadly only 3 survived to adulthood. Jane liked her second cousins and was close to Mary Cooke in particular. As mentioned, the Cookes had evangelical leanings, and Jane wasn't always kind to the clergy in her novels. The Cookes, however, appreciated Mansfield Park, as Jane writes in a letter from 1814: "Mr Cooke says "it is the most sensible book he ever read" - and the manner in which I treat the Clergy delights them very much" (letter 101). The Cookes interpreted the novel as "a protest against lax views on clerical duty" (Chapman in Matts et al), considering Edmund's strong sense of duty and moral standards in the novel.  

What is fascinating to learn is that Cassandra Cooke was also an authoress and published a historical novel called "Battleridge" in 1799. Once more, we can see once more how literary Jane's extended family was and how she would have been inspired by several of her family members on her way to becoming a writer herself. 

The Cookes first lived in Gothic House opposite the church. 

Gothic House was the earlier rectory and home of Rev Cooke's family. 

Later, the family moved to a newly built rectory set back from the road, which was later known as "The Old Rectory", but has since been demolished. 

The site of the new rectory is on the right where the parade of shops is. 

 

Another famous resident of Great Bookham is Fanny Burney (later Fanny D'Arblay) who lived right across the road from St Nicolas Church in a house called Fairfield Cottage, now called "The Hermitage". 

"The Hermitage", the home of Fanny Burney. 

Fanny Burney was one of Jane's favourite authors and a huge influence on her writing. Jane particularly liked her novels Evelina, Cecilia and Camilla, using these as an inspiration for her own work, such as the opening line in Pride and Prejudice and the characterisation of Mr Darcy. It would be interesting to know whether Jane ever met Fanny Burney, as it is likely that they did come into contact in such close proximity, given that the Cooke family knew her well. 

Mickleham

Fanny Burney moved to Bookham after getting married to French emigré, General D'Arblay, in another village called Mickleham in 1793. 

Mickleham Church where the D'Arblays got married. 

Inside Mickleham Church 

Evidently, the D'Arblays were happily married! 

When the D'Arblays moved to Bookham, Fanny had already published Evelina and Cecilia. After making more money from the publishing of Camilla in 1802, the D'Arblays could build a new house in West Humble, a tiny village at the foot hill of Box Hill. The house was designed by D'Arblay himself. The new house built on the site of the original house is now called Camilla Lacey, but it is not visible to the road and I was unable to stop to take photos, as the road was very narrow. I did spot a road sign saying "Burney Road", named after the most famous resident in the village. 

The area's literary connections don't end here. Another French emigré, Germaine De Stael, whose writing Jane also admired (but who did not admire Jane, calling her novels "vulgaire"!) briefly stayed down the road at Juniper Hall. Juniper Hall is where the French emigrés were first settled when they sought refuge in England, and this is also where Fanny Burney first met D'Arblay. I understand that the building is now a school. Germaine De Stael was friendly with Fanny Burney at the time and visited her in West Humble (although they later parted ways). The playwright R.B. Sheridan also lived at the large local estate, Polesden Lacey, now known as a popular National Trust property with wonderful views across the hilly countryside.

Juniper Hall

As we have learnt, Jane Austen was surrounded by literary genius all around her, and it is now wonder that she ended up a writer herself. Although her stories are fictitious and there may not be a specific village that was intended to be Highbury, given the plethora of local references there's no doubt that this area was a huge inspiration for Jane Austen when creating the imaginary setting of Highbury in Emma.

References and further reading:

Le Faye, Deirdre. (2011) Jane Austen's Letters. Fourth Edition. OUP.

Matts, Fenner, Renn & Whitman. 1800 - Great Bookham at the Time of Jane Austen, Fanny Burney and R. B. Sheridan. The Parochial Church Council of St Nicholas Great Bookham. 

My visit to Box Hill: https://austenised.blogspot.com/2016/05/they-had-very-fine-day-for-box-hill.html

Tony Grant's tour of the area: Jane Austen's Surrey: The Novels as Inspiration by Tony Grant (Jane Austen's World)

Janeite Deb's visit to the area: Adventures with Jane! Jasna Tour Day II - off to Kent (Jane Austen in Vermont)

Brenda Cox's Visit to St Nicolas: Visiting Great Bookham: The Church of St Nicolas (Jane Austen's World)

My blog posts about Fanny Burney: 

What did Jane Austen and Fanny Burney have in common? 

Jane Austen A-shopping with Burney's Evelina

Picture Courtesy: Leatherhead Museum Curators Lucy Quinnell and Cathy Brett.