"Miss Austen" by Gill Hornby

Chawton cottage.

   I'm sure many people are, like me, enjoying watching the TV dramatisation of Gill Hornby's novel "Miss Austen", which centres on Jane Austen's elder sister, Cassandra.

   I have not, alas, read the book. I intend to do so but for now will be content to enjoy Keeley Hawes' performance as Cassandra in later life, and the very atmospheric recreation of the Regency world. The casting of Jane Austen herself is certainly rather surprising, not at all like the classical beauty we are used to seeing on the £10 banknote. Patsy Curran has an expressive and distinctly comical face, far darker than most portrayals of the authoress.

   If you know anything about Jane Austen you will be familiar with the story of how her elder sister's fiancé died before they could be married, leaving her to remain "Miss Austen" for life. After Jane's death Cassandra destroyed an unknown number of her sister's letters, cutting out passages from the remaining ones that she considered unsuitable for publication. Jane's posthumous fame did not come as an unalloyed blessing to the Austen family.

Jane Austen, drawn by Cassandra
 and modified by AI.

Gill Hornby has made destruction of these letters the focal point of the story, and the question of Cassandra's motive. Was there something apart from improper jokes or unseemly expressions that Cassandra wanted to hide? Were there mysteries, family secrets?

The cottage at Chawton where Jane and Cassandra lived at the time of Jane's death features among the lovingly recreated interiors. Other homes of the Austen family have vanished. Steventon parsonage, where Jane grew up, was demolished in Victorian times and so was the original rectory at Kintbury, Berkshire, where Cassandra in this story goes in 1840. Her purpose is to visit the daughter of the Rev. Fulwar Craven Fowle, husband of Jane Austen's good friend Eliza Lloyd. Cassandra knows that Jane wrote Eliza a lot of letters and she wants to get hold of them before anyone can publish them.

Steventon parsonage, now demolished.

Fulwar Fowle was the brother of Tom Fowle, Cassandra's fiancé. He was fortunate enough to survive, marry, have many children and become a respected Anglican rector, in the parish where his father and grandfather had preceded him.

What may puzzle modern readers is the fact that Cassandra and Tom did not marry. What went wrong? As always in Jane Austen's books, it's economics.

Tom Fowle was born in 1765, making him eight years older than Cassandra, and two years younger than Fulwar. He met the Austen girls when staying at Steventon parsonage to be tutored for university entrance by their father, the Rev. George Austen. After graduating from St Johns College, Oxford, he worked for a while as a curate, and then he became rector of Allington, in Wiltshire, in 1793. Shortly afterwards he and Cassandra became engaged.  He was by then aged twenty-eight and apparently had a secure employment. Yet he still could not afford to support a wife and children.

     The trouble with the Allington job was that although there was a large rectory house, the stipend was tiny. This was because there were only seventy-five people living in the parish. Their tithes did not amount to enough for a rector to be able to support a wife and family. Families in this era were large. Jane was one of eight brothers and sisters. Her father had been able to support them only because he had two parishes, that of Steventon and the neighbouring one of Deane, and he took in pupils. [1].

Even by 1835, the stipend of the rector of Allington was only £236 per year. [2]

The rectory at Allington, Wiltshire.

The job of rector had been awarded to him by his distant cousin, Lord Craven, who was patron of many such "livings" as they were called, including that of Kintbury. William Craven, (the eldest son of Elizabeth Craven the writer), was aged only twenty-three when he succeeded to the title and estates of his father. He wanted to help Tom but had many other relations who were occupying the clergy posts at his disposal. Once allocated, such posts were bestowed for life. Tom had to wait until a rector with a better paid job died.

  So the young couple prudently waited for two years. In 1795 Lord Craven offered Tom another position, that of chaplain, on a military expedition he was leading to the West Indies. The Napoleonic wars being in full swing, he had raised a regiment, wholly at his own expense, and taken it to fight in Flanders. Now he had undertaken to take it to the West Indies to defend British possessions against the French. It was difficult and dangerous, since they had to cross the Atlantic and face possible conflict with the French navy. The wages of a military chaplain were small, so possibly Tom was tempted by the adventure as much as by the money. Tragically, he died of yellow fever on the homeward journey, in 1797. 

   Cassandra was by then aged only twenty-four. Did she, as this novel speculates, have later admirers and a second chance?

   A year later, in 1798, the incumbent of the parish of St Mary's, Kintbury died and Lord Craven offered the post to Tom's elder brother Fulwar. Kintbury was a far more lucrative proposition as it had 1430 inhabitants. The rector's stipend was well over a thousand pounds per year, and Fulwar was awarded a second parish as well, that of Elkstone in Gloucestershire. Thus Fulwar was able to marry Jane's friend Eliza Lloyd, and the Austen sisters sometimes went to stay as her guest. [3]

The old Georgian rectory at Kintbury.
 https://kintburyandbeyond.co.uk/2024/02/23/kintbury-in-the-time-of-jane-austen/

When Eliza Lloyd sent them news mentioning Lord Craven, Jane reacted in a way that suggested unfriendly feelings. She reported to Cassandra that his lordship (whom neither sister had ever met) had perfect manners and his only "little flaw" was that of keeping a mistress at Ashdown House. The implication is that a person who is no paragon of virtue is in charge of making decisions about clergy posts and other people's marital prospects. This was very true, but William never meant any harm to Tom or Cassandra and after serving his country for ten years with enormous heroism, went on to become a devoted husband and father.

William, Lord Craven, as a young man.

The old rectory at Kintbury was replaced in late Victorian times with a far grander house, where we are told Gill Hornby actually lives.  She has the pleasure of being able to walk around the gardens where Jane and Cassandra once walked.

What Gill Hornby gets absolutely right is that the bond between Jane and Cassandra is so central in both of their lives, so essential to their existence and played such an important part in Jane's creativity. This is a marked contrast from the film "Becoming Jane", based on the book by Jon Hunter Spence, which presented Jane Austen as a stunning beauty (of course), wove a fanciful version of Jane's youthful romance with Tom Lefroy, and totally sidelined her relationship with her sister. Cassandra hardly appeared. 

Despite the lovingly re-created settings and excellent acting, I don't think that Gill Hornby's complicated story really works very well as television, not at any rate in the way it is presented, with constant time shifts backwards and forwards, as well as shifts in location. There are too many characters who look too alike, and even if you have a family tree of the Austens, Lloyds and Fowles to refer to, it can be confusing. People who are not familiar with Jane's life will wonder why one of her brothers seems to be so extremely rich, while his sisters are poor relations and Cassandra cannot afford to marry.

I think it was a mistake to have two different actresses playing Cassandra, young and old. They could have simply let Keeley Hawes play both, with some flattering makeup for her younger self and a grey wig plus some lines and shadows for Cassandra in her sixties. 

I look forward to reading the book after watching the dramatised version.

1. A Topographical Dictionary of England ...By Nicholas Carlisle · 1808 "ALLINGTON, (formerly Aldington,) in the hund. of Amesbury, Co. of WILTS: a R. valued in the King's Books at £14..13..4: Patron, Lord Craven. The Resident Population of this Parish, in 1801, was 75. The Money raised by the Parish Rates, in 1803, was £72..8..3, at 6d. in the Pound. It is 34 m. E. S. E. from Amesbury."

 "KINTBURY, or KENTBURY, (anciently Kennetbury,) in the hund. of Kintbury Fagle, Co. of BERKS: a V. valued in the King's Books at £20..0..0: Patron, C. Dundas, Esq.: Church ded. to St. Mary. The Resident Population of this Parish, in 1801, was 1430. The Money raised by the Parish Rates, in 1803, was £1237..7..04, at 6s. 104d. in the Pound."]

[2]ALLINGTON, a parish, in the union and hundred of AMESBURY, Salisbury and Amesbury, and S. divisions of WILTS, 3 miles (E. S. E.) from Amesbury; containing 80 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £14. 13.4.; net income, £236; patron, the Earl of Craven.[A TOPOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF ENGLAND, BY SAMUEL LEWIS. Fourth Edition. IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. I. FROM ABBAS-COMBE TO CWMYOY. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY S. LEWIS AND CO., 13, FINSBURY PLACE, SOUTH. M.DCCCXXXV.(1835)]

[3]Alumni Oxoniensis.
Fowle, Fulwar Craven, s. Thomas, of Kintbury, Berks, cler. St. John's Coll. , matric. 19 June, 1781, aged 17; B.A. 1785, M.A, 1788, vicar of Kintbury, Berks, and rector of Elkstone, co. Gloucester,Elkstone, co. Gloucester,Elkstone, co. Gloucester,Elkstone, co. Gloucester, 1798, until his death 9 March, 1840. 
Fowle, Thomas, s. Thomas, of Lockridge, Wilts, gent. Hakt Hall, matric. 8 March, 1714-5, aged 17 ; B.A. 1718, M.A. 1721 (Memo. : Thomas Fowle, vicar of Kintbury, Berks, died 30 June, 1762).

Fowle, Thomas, s. Thomas, of Kintbury, Berks, cler. St. John's Coll. , matric. 9 July, 1783, aged 17; B.A. 1787, M.A. 1794.