by Jane Austen
37. Both women and men almost always wore headgear when outside, and bonnets, which lacked the brims of hats, had recently become popular with women (for a picture, see this page). Because they encompassed the whole head, rather than sitting atop it, they tended to be “close” (close-fitting). By hiding the face from anyone not directly in front of the wearer, they would be appropriate for girls who were supposed to remain modest and unnoticed.
38. confidence: presumption, extreme assurance. The word could have a negative connotation then.
39. quizzing: making fun of, ridiculing.
40. Tom’s response, moving from Miss Crawford’s question and concerns to his own situation, and the two long stories about himself he proceeds to tell, signal what will soon become fully apparent: that he has no particular interest in her. Thus Jane Austen uses this dialogue both to provide more information about Fanny and to develop the character and relationships of the three speakers.
41. imposed on: deceived.
42. accurately: precisely.
43. Baker Street is in the Marylebone section of London. Marylebone developed in the second half of the eighteenth century, immediately north of the Mayfair section (see this page, note 15). It became part of the wealthy and fashionable West End.
44. The letters of business could be to local merchants. The mother was normally in charge of purchases, and since buying on credit was standard practice, there would be letters going back and forth to handle bills.
45. out of countenance: into a disconcerted state.
46. disgusting: distasteful. The word had a less strong connotation then. The disagreement between Miss Crawford and Edmund suggests differences in outlook that will be articulated more fully in later exchanges (see this page particularly). She is focusing on modesty as an external behavior, thinking silent girls are sufficiently modest and condemning girls who act freely too soon, because of the distasteful appearance that results. He, in contrast, conceives of modesty as an inner virtue, criticizing the girls in question for lack of sincerity in their modest behavior. Here and later, she sees manners as external rules designed to facilitate social life, he as expressions of underlying moral principles.
47. Ramsgate was a seaside resort in Kent, on the southeastern coast; its proximity to London made it one of the most visited in England. Going to the seaside had developed as a popular activity during the eighteenth century, and numerous resorts had sprung up along the coasts. Jane Austen visited some of them, including Ramsgate. She liked others, but in a letter she derides someone’s interest in Ramsgate as “Bad Taste!” (Oct. 14, 1813).
48. Albion Place is a street in Ramsgate next to the water. A travel book from 1805 describes dining at an inn on Albion Place, “from which there is a most admirable view,” and then walking “along the two piers, which are the finest in England, running out nearly half a mile into the sea” (John Henry Manners, Journal of a Tour Round the Southern Coasts of England).
49. in form: formally, according to the prescribed rules.
50. Mrs. Sneyd’s being surrounded by men suggests the possible moral looseness of Tom’s friends. His casual mention of such a potentially embarrassing detail indicates his own lack of discretion.
51. Veils and parasols protect the face from the sun, a particular issue at the seaside. Tanned skin was considered unattractive, so genteel people, especially women, tried to shield themselves (see this page for a picture).
52. Usually an older daughter would be out for a certain period before the younger one came out, in part to give the older a chance to secure a husband without competition from within the family.
53. Miss Sneyd is the elder, which is why only her last name is used.
54. A governess would often serve as a chaperone as well as a teacher for girls.
55. half and half: half one thing, half another.
56. A girl who was out would normally go to balls and dinners, so Miss Crawford’s conclusion is understandable, though Edmund’s remarks suggest that Fanny’s limited social life may result more from Lady Bertram’s selfish insistence on her company at home than from her not being out.
VOLUME I, CHAPTER VI
1. The hostess sits at the top of the table and the host at the bottom. With Sir Thomas gone, Tom, as the elder son, is the host (and would also carve); when he is absent, Edmund fills his place. Mary’s interest in Tom led her to choose a seat near the bottom, which has become her customary one.
2. flat business: dull occupation or activity.
3. At this time food was served by placing dishes throughout the table; this allowed diners to see all the choices and the hosts to display their wealth and taste through the wide array on offer. Usually the meal began with soup being passed around. After that people took items from the dishes in their vicinity, with gentlemen expected to serve the ladies next to them.
4. Wine would also be passed around. The host initiated the process (as Edmund does—this page), in part because it was considered improper for ladies to drink wine unless solicited to do so by a man.
5. Venison seems to be served regularly here, an indication of the Bertrams’ wealth, for the conversion of most land in England to farmland had made deer rare. Only those with very large estates could afford to have deer parks, which provided an exclusive form of sport and food. Tom’s former haunches may include ones he enjoyed at friends’ homes.
6. Improving one’s grounds had become very popular, especially among those with extensive estates, who frequently hired a professional improver. In letters from a visit to her brother Edward, who inherited a wealthy estate, Jane Austen describes active discussions of such plans (Oct. 25, 1800; Nov. 8, 1800; Nov. 20, 1800). A principal impetus was a dramatic change in garden design. Traditionally gardens had been formal, characterized by straight paths, geometric shapes, and strict symmetry. But in the mid-eighteenth century in England a new style arose; it rejected symmetry in favor of grounds that looked more natural, with serpentine paths, changes in elevation, scattered groups of trees or other plants, and irregular bodies of water. This style soon predominated and inspired all who could afford it to alter their grounds according to its tenets. This could be a considerable undertaking, for the new style called ideally for shaping the entire park surrounding the house, even if it stretched for miles, and while the result was supposed to look natural, it involved a careful design of each section and substantial work, including clearing away older features, cutting down or planting large numbers of trees, raising or lowering entire hills, and shifting rivers or forming new ponds and lakes.
7. People would gather in the drawing room before dinner, and sit for a brief period, before proceeding into the dining room.
8. This is the house’s formal name. Many grand houses were called “Court,” since older dwellings had often been built around a central court.
9. The man identified below as responsible for these alterations, Humphry Repton, was a real person. Repton, the leading landscape gardener of the time, placed a great importance on the approach, or road to a house. In one of his books on the subject, Sketches and Hints on Landscape Gardening (1795), he devotes a chapter to approaches, and a list of his main principles includes: “The house, unless very large and magnificent, should not be seen at so great a distance as to make it appear much less than it really is,” and “The house should be at first presented in a pleasing point of view” (The Art of Landscape Gardening, p. 51). The goal was for the visitor’s first sight of the house to be close and impressive, so it comes into view “in a surprising manner.”
10. As explained shortly, Sotherton is an older building, which might be regarded by someone enamored of newer styles as being prison-like. Older houses tended to be less comfortable, to have thicker walls, and to enjoy less light, due to fewer or smaller windows or a more shaded location. For examples, see the pictures on this page and this page.
11. This was Humphry Repton’s actual fee (a guinea was worth a pound and a shilling, and thus just over a pound;
for shillings, see this page, note 19). Many landowners hired professionals like Repton to assist with or direct their improvements. Jane Austen’s knowledge of his work stemmed from personal experience, for cousins of the Austens who owned the estate of Adlestrop, in Gloucestershire, hired Repton to redesign their grounds. Jane Austen, who had first visited in 1794, before the redesign, came again in 1806, allowing her to see the effect of his completed handiwork and to hear about the process from her cousins. Among the changes was a new approach road that improved the view of the house. On this latter visit she also stayed at another grand estate, Stoneleigh Abbey (for more, see this page, note 5), whose owners hired Repton a few years later. She never returned to see those alterations, but she would have heard of them, especially from her brother James, who visited in 1809, just after Repton had given the family one of his “Red Books”—books with illustrations that showed how the improved landscape would look (in this case, the family ended up following some, but not all, of his recommendations).
12. burlesque: grotesque or ridiculous imitation; caricature.
13. The grounds of a parsonage, though smaller than those at a grand house, could still be an object of improvement. The hero of Northanger Abbey, a clergyman, devotes substantial attention to alterations to his grounds, and Jane Austen’s parents, at the rectory where she grew up, made a number of changes, including the creation of a decorative shrubbery.
14. As the person controlling the appointment to the clerical position, it was officially Sir Thomas’s responsibility to make necessary improvements to Mansfield parsonage. He probably paid for most or all of the changes made there, and thus discussed them with Mr. and Mrs. Norris. At the same time, he may have set a limit to how much he was willing to spend, constraining any further activity by Mrs. Norris, whatever the state of her husband’s health.
15. It was standard for gardens to have walls around them, both to shield plants from the cold, thereby extending the growing season, and, in the case of gardens designed for relaxation or enjoyment, to provide privacy.
16. A “plantation” means a grouping of planted items. It often referred to trees and probably does here, since trees could shut out an adjacent yard from view. Parsonages were usually next to the church, and because a churchyard was a public space, often containing the parish graves, blocking it from sight would add to the privacy of the parsonage.
17. Meaning the spring that was at least a year before the death. Since the death probably occurred in the autumn (see chronology, this page), it would be about a year and a half.
18. Apricots, which were widely cultivated in ancient times, were introduced to England in the sixteenth century. The “moor park,” a specific variety, was developed later and named after the estate where it was first cultivated. A book from 1818 calls it the variety of apricot that “is held in esteem over any other at present cultivated” (Pomona Londinensis, entry IX). For a picture of an apricot tree from a contemporary book on cultivating fruit trees, see this page.
19. A shilling was, along with pounds and pence, one of the basic units of monetary value; account records were normally kept with one column for each of the three. Twelve pence made a shilling, and twenty shillings made a pound. Hence seven shillings would not be a large sum.
20. natural: normal.
21. Fruit was often used for tarts and preserves rather than eaten raw, in part from a belief that raw fruit could harm people’s digestion.
22. “Dilapidations” in this context means actions causing the parsonage to fall into a state of decay or damage; it could also mean sums charged to pay for repairs. In the English church then it was the responsibility of the holder of a clerical living to maintain the parsonage, and sometimes, whether from negligence or lack of means, the incumbent failed in this task. The new holder could then charge him or his heirs the appropriate sum. Considering Mr. Norris’s poor health and Mrs. Norris’s stinginess, it makes sense that the parsonage fell into disrepair during their residence, while Mr. Grant’s taste for comfortable living makes it logical for him to have sought redress.
23. An important reason for landscaping improvements was to allow the owner to show off his fine estate, and thus his wealth and good taste, to his friends or to other prominent families in the country (i.e., county).
24. Elsewhere in Austen’s novels people speak of the need to pay particular attention to ladies’ comfort. Maria is the lady whom Mr. Rushworth is keen to please; he can only insinuate that because it was not proper to express very strong affection, especially in public, for someone to whom one is only engaged.
25. Water meadows are deliberately flooded by a stream or river during part of the year, a common practice that had developed during the preceding two centuries. The water stimulated the growth of grass, thereby providing better pasturage for livestock, and shielded the grass from cold during the winter, thereby promoting early growth. The meadows were drained in the spring, once sufficient grass had grown, and then, after the animals had exhausted them and moved to later-blossoming dry meadows, reflooded until the next year.
26. prospect: view.
27. amazingly: exceedingly.
28. Since having a beautiful and expansive view from the house was a prime goal of Repton and other landscape gardeners of the time, trees that blocked the view were often removed, including from avenues—roads lined with trees, usually in a straight line and at regular intervals. Such avenues were popular in earlier periods, when landscaping ideals emphasized order and symmetry, and were a prominent feature of the grounds around older homes. Repton himself did not call for all avenues to be removed, for he believed in adjusting his recommendations to the particular characteristics of each setting, but he did consider them generally to be a drawback, especially because of their interference with the view. For an older house with trees, see this page.
29. Maria may think it becoming to profess ignorance of her betrothed’s estate due to prevailing standards of feminine modesty, which emphasized the need for women not to show romantic eagerness; but she also may wish to signal to Henry Crawford her relative lack of attachment to Mr. Rushworth.
30. William Cowper (1731–1800) was one of the most popular poets of the period; he is a particular favorite of Marianne Dashwood, the romantic heroine of Sense and Sensibility. Jane Austen also liked him, and refers to him in her letters. His poems center around the depiction and celebration of nature, frequently mixed with a religious message. Fanny is quoting from his most renowned work, “The Task,” a long philosophical poem that includes, in its many evocations of the beauties of the country and rural life, the famous line “God made the country, and man made the town.” His lamentations regarding disappearing avenues commence with praise of “Our fathers” for knowing the value of “shaded walks / And long protracted bow’rs” to protect us from the sun. He soon returns to the theme with the passage cited by Fanny:
Ye fallen avenues! once more I mourn
Your fate unmerited, once more rejoice
That yet a remnant of your race survives.
How airy and how light the graceful arch,
Yet awful as the consecrated roof
Re-echoing pious anthems!
This is followed by a celebration of the delightful play of light and shadow beneath the leaves of the avenue. Later he offers a further criticism of the new landscaping fashion, declaring, “Improvement too, the idol of the age / Is fed with many a victim” and describing how the elaborate changes involve tearing down the venerable “abode of our forefathers” and frequently impoverish the owner of the estate.
31. As explained earlier, Sotherton is ten miles away, and a trip would take around two hours in each direction, far beyond what Fanny, who is soon described as of limited strength in her horse-riding abilities, could do in a day.
32. collect: gather.
33. Queen Elizabeth reigned from 1558 to 1603. Many of the grand houses in England dated from previous centuries, so people would be well acquainted with earlier a
rchitectural styles. Houses in Elizabethan, or Tudor, style tended to be both regular and heavy.
34. Older houses were usually in a low-lying and sheltered position. In the century preceding this novel, that had changed, as the fashion grew for having houses that could command a sweeping view of the surrounding landscape.
35. Water played a critical role in landscaping improvements of the time, with rivers or streams regularly being altered, through changing their direction or damming them to create or enlarge a lake. Repton discusses the subject frequently in his writings, and in a brief passage regarding Adlestrop, the estate where Jane Austen was able to witness his changes, he explains how he eliminated “a small pool” near the house to keep it from “attracting the eye and preventing its range over the lawn and falling ground beyond.” Instead “a lively stream of water has been led through a flower garden, where its progress down the hill is occasionally obstructed by ledges of rocks, and after a variety of interesting circumstances it falls into a lake at a considerable distance” (The Art of Landscape Gardening, p. 96). He says the result is a delightful view from the dwellings on the estate. For similar plans of his, see this page.
36. dress: appearance, adornment.
37. well bred: polite, courteous.
38. Those residing at Mansfield Park not only were used to elaborate landscaped grounds but also would have seen work done on them, for they required considerable maintenance and needed at times minor alterations.
39. in hand: in process.
40. During the eighteenth century the town of Twickenham became a popular place of residence for the wealthy, since it offered country living in close proximity to the capital, with the added attraction of being along the river Thames. For its location, see map.