Maidservants

Ladies expected their female domestics should be clean and tidily dressed in muslin (not lace) caps, cotton and stuff gowns and petticoats, sturdy shawls of demure colours, and straw bonnets when going outdoors. In Persuasion, Mrs Musgrove complained that her daughter-in-law Mary’s ‘nursery-maid... is always upon the gad, and...she is such a fine-dressing lady, that she is enough to ruin any servants she comes near.’

And in Mansfield Park, Mrs Price was discomposed if she saw her servant Rebecca 'pass by with a flower in her hat' when out walking on Sundays.

A good master or mistress ensured that their servants received good, plain, plentiful food, and paid their medical expenses if ill. Servants were permitted to visit their friends and relations occasionally; Sunday was usually the most convenient day.
Ladies took great care to select servants with good references, and if possible hired those recommended by friends or family. A careless or slovenly maid could cause havoc in a household.

In January 1802, Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra, 'We plan having a steady cook and a young, giddy housemaid, with a sedate, middle-aged man, who is to undertake the double office of husband to the former and sweetheart to the latter. No children, of course, to be allowed on either side'.
Illustrations: 'High life below stairs'. George Cruikshank, 1799.
‘Work for the plumber’. Thomas Rowlandson, 1810.  Both courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Hugh Thomson illustration for Mansfield Park. Author's collection.  

Fashionable Fabrics

I'm a guest on the lovely Catherine Curzon's eighteenth-century blog this week. You can read my post on fashionable fabrics in Jane Austen's day here.
This lace collar on display on the Jane Austen's House Museum at Chawton was worked by the novelist herself. The Museum is trying to raise funds to buy a rare letter written by Jane Austen's sister Cassandra - there's more details on its website.
Image © Sue Wilkes.

A Visit to Whitchurch

Whitchurch Town Hall

Jane Austen's birthplace of Steventon was a small village, so she often went shopping for necessities in nearby towns and villages like Alton, Basingstoke and Whitchurch. In a letter to Cassandra (November 1800) she wrote: 'Martha [Lloyd] has promised to return with me [after Jane's visit to her], and our plan is to have a nice black frost for walking to Whitchurch and there throw ourselves into a postchaise, one upon the other, our heads hanging out at one door, and our feet at the opposite'. 
If you explore Whitchurch today, you can still see

White Hart, Whitchurch

some of the buildings which would have been familiar to Jane, such as the Town Hall, built in the late 18th century, and the White Hart Hotel, which reputedly dates back to the mid-15th century.  

The fashion magazines of Austen's day like La Belle Assemblee and the Lady's Monthly Museum often mention silk gowns and cloaks.  

Whitchurch Silk Mill

Whitchurch Silk Mill was built after Jane Austen moved away from Steventon in early 1801. It was probably constructed about 1813, although it's possible that there was an earlier mill building on the same site. There was also a silk mill at nearby Overton, another place mentioned in Austen's letters.

Whitchurch Silk Mill is still a working factory, and it has produced silk for film adaptations of Austen's novels including Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. 

Brightly coloured silks wound on swifts at Whitchurch Silk Mill.

Photos © Sue Wilkes.

A Night At The Opera

On 8 January 1801, Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra, who was staying at Godmersham Park: ‘I think you judge very wisely in putting off your London visit...You speak with such noble resignation of Mrs Jordan and the Opera House, that it would be an insult to suppose resignation required’.  By 25 January, Cassandra must have written to Jane to say that she would soon be on her way to the metropolis: ‘I hope you shall see everything worthy [of] notice, from the Opera House to Henry’s [their brother’s] office in Cleveland Court; and I shall expect you to lay in a stock of intelligence that may procure me amusement for twelve months to come’ (Lord Edward Brabourne, Letters of Jane Austen, 2 Vols., Richard Bentley & Son, 1884).

Which Opera House was Jane referring to? According to A Picture of London for 1802, (R. Phillips, c.1802), the Opera House, a ‘magnificent theatre’ was ‘situated at the lower end of the west side of the Haymarket’.  It was originally known as the Queen’s Theatre, and was built by John Vanbrugh in about 1705.  The Opera House ‘was open in the winter, and till Midsummer, for Italian operas and French ballets’.

However by about 1808, Ackermann’s Microcosm of London rather snootily commented that although the stage scenery was ‘very good’, the stage was ‘not sufficient for the magnificent ballets which the prevailing taste of the day requires’. 

In 1837 the Opera House was renamed Her Majesty’s Theatre, in honour of Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne.

Images from the author’s collection:

Evening dress. The Lady’s Magazine, January 1827.

The Opera House in 1800. Old and New London Vol. IV, 1878.