Birthday of Elizabeth Craven

Elizabeth Craven was born on 17th December 1750 - so her birthday is the day following Jane Austen's. Let astrologers make of that what they will.


In later life she liked to celebrate it at Benham, her home in Berkshire, where she would invite a dozen or so lively young people and hold a house party throughout the Christmas season.

There would be music, private theatricals and visits to the local theatre at Newbury to amuse them. Elizabeth Craven was a patron of the little Georgian theatre at Newbury and she and her husband the Margrave had invested in it. So she was always a welcome guest, and could fill a box with her party. They applauded loyally whatever the play and whatever the quality of the performance - Shakespeare or a maudlin melodrama, acted superbly or lamentably  - then drove home to Benham for supper and merriment.





Newbury theatre. The Theatric Tourist. London 1805. Image from The Theatric Tourist; being a genuine collection of views, with brief accounts of all the principal provincial theatres in the United Kingdom. By a Theatric Amateur. WINSTON, James. 




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