The Melville Island Prison at Halifax, Nova Scotia: French POW Francois Boureuf's Experiences and Austen Family Associations

During the Napoleonic Wars, Halifax, Nova Scotia was the northern base of the British Navy’s North Atlantic operations. The Naval Dock Yard maintained the British fleet. The Halifax Vice Admiralty Court ruled on claims for naval prize[1]. A detention centre for prisoners of war also became necessary.

As the conflict between Britain and France continued, 1,535 French prisoners of war were shipped to Halifax between 1803-1813. To cope with this influx, the British Admiralty ordered the building of a military prison to be administered according to the international standards for the treatment of POWs. A rural island in a small cove situated on the western side of the North West Arm of Halifax Harbour was selected as it was well separated from the civilian life of Halifax. Completed in 1808, the complex on Melville Island included a hospital, prisoners’ barracks, guards’ barracks, magazine, officers’ house and a burial ground on an adjacent peninsula, known as Deadman’s Island. [2]

Fig.1: Print of View from Cowie’s Hill on the western side of the Northwest Arm by George I. Parkyns, 1801. [3]

Fig. 2: Plan of Melville Island Situated Near the Town of Halifax Nova Scotia by John G. Toler, 1812. [4]

Fig.3: The Source of Francois Bourneuf’s Narrative. 

A Narrative of Incarceration on Melville Island 

Francois Bourneuf was a 22-year-old seaman on the French frigate, La Furieuse when he was captured on 6 July 1809 during an action between his ship and the British warship, HMS Bonne Citoyenne. He was brought to Halifax where he was treated for a gun shot injury to his leg, but when sufficiently recovered, he was sent as a POW to the Melville Island Prison. [5] Later in life, he wrote an autobiography [6] which provides a vivid first-person account of prison life on Melville Island.

On arrival, Bourneuf was required to exchange his own clothes for standard prisoners’ garb. The dress code spoke to the realities of his situation. The letters POW were printed in red on the back of his jacket, on the thighs of his trousers and on the front of his shirt. The word “Prisoner” was inscribed on the inside of his shoes.  

On surveying his new surroundings, he quickly realized that the security arrangements were formidable. The prison yard was enclosed by sharply pointed stakes, twelve to fifteen feet high and strengthened by cross-pieces. The military surveillance protocol was strict and rigorous. [7] The whole prison was also surrounded by water, which served as a natural barrier to escape. Bourneuf decided to adjust to his new circumstances as best he could. 

The prisoners’ living quarters was a large wooden building, which was divided lengthwise into three parts. [8] In the centre was a common area where the prisoners could gather. The other parts were “divided every 8 feet into ‘ports’, each of which housed thirty inmates.” [9] Each port contained a wooden superstructure to which the men attached their hammocks, hanging them up every night and taking them down every morning.

Fig. 4: Interior of the Prisoners’ Barracks. [10]

 The living arrangements were highly organized. Rations of fresh bread, a half pound of meat per man, salt and potatoes were received by each prisoner every other day. [11] The men were divided into messes of seven. One member of the mess cooked the rations of meat for all of them on a long spit over an open fire. He then made a large pot of soup from which each man received a spoonful of broth and his portion of meat. According to Bourneuf, “the men cooked stews over small fires in the lee of the wind, in the most convenient places in the prison yard.” [12]

In addition to the issue of clothes, provisions were made for the prisoners’ health and hygiene. For example, in the prison’s kitchen, “there was a large pot to heat water to wash … clothes, and there was hot water every forenoon for those who wanted to wash. [The men] received wood and coal for the kitchen, and in winter [they] received two large stoves and coal to keep [them] warm in the prison.” [13]

Bourneuf’s narrative also speaks of the spirit of conviviality and mutual support he found among the POWS. He described the response of comrades when, after escaping from the prison in August 1811 he was recaptured and  confined in a miserable underground cell, known as the Hole, where he was only supplied with bread and water. Bourneuf wrote: “As Frenchmen are generous and sympathetic in these circumstances, they shared their own rations of meat and soup with us.”  [15]

Bourneuf had a further advantage within the prisoners’ society. As many as twenty-six of his shipmates were detained on Melville Island until at least 1811, so he could have been sustained by friendships formed earlier while on the Furieuse.

Fig. 5: Admiralty Records of POWs from the Furieuse and other ships. [16]

Although the confinement and regimentation of prison life was endlessly boring, the prisoners found ways to relieve the tedium.  Bourneuf wrote with surprise and wonder at the busyness of the many skilled craftsmen among the POWS. “When I arrived all the French men were working, some were knitting stockings, mitts, gloves or purses, and some were spinning. Some were making model battleships rigged with silk and armed with cannons made of pennies.  It took almost six months to make some of these models and they sold for as much as $20. Other Frenchmen made hats from birch bark, all kinds of crafts from bones, such as snuff boxes, knives, forks, spoons, dice, dominos.” [17] The prisoners paid for supplies that they needed by arrangement with the jailer. In a single year Halifax butchers supplied 1000 ox bones and farmers supplied 4,000 pounds of wool. [18]

Bourneuf soon became involved in these craft activities, which he found absorbing, lucrative and socially satisfying. He unravelled his white nightcap, wound the wool in a ball and asked one of his companions to teach him how to knit. He had a hook made so he was able to make gloves, which he washed, dyed, and stretched on forms to dry. He began to sell his finished products but soon he realized that items made from bones were selling for much higher prices. He teamed up with three skilled craftsmen who taught him the intricacies of working with bones.  Before long, Bourneuf’s English was good enough to sell all the articles they made at the Prisoners’ Market located in the Prison Yard.        

The Market thrived because the goods were unusual and attractive and the local population was keen to buy. Visiting Melville Island became a fashionable thing to do in Halifax. Bourneuf observed that “the British visited us in large groups during the week. There were many warships and a large number of troops in Halifax, and few of these officers did not come to visit us, [a]long with their ladies.” [19] “Melville Prison was like a small town fair, especially on Sundays and holidays when it was the favourite resort of the town’s young people, and where a pleasant hour could be passed in conversation with the prisoners while examining the goods for sale.” [20]

Bourneuf’s account of life on Melville Island, as related here, makes the establishment sound like a bearable arrangement, given standards of the day for POW prisons. However, he was also very aware of the much darker aspects of his existence. He wrote of the brutality of punishments, which ranged from incarceration in the Hole to floggings by the guards. The prisoners had their own code of conduct too. As Shea explains: “through their Grand Council the French enforced an internal discipline which was just as brutal as that meted out by the guards. Stealing from one another meant the lash with the cat-o’-nine-tails. Anyone known to have informed on another inmate planning an escape was likely to be taken to a secluded spot, out of sight of the authorities, bound, and then stoned to death by the whole company.” [21]

What became of Francois Bourneuf? 

In 1812, aged 24, Bourneuf made a second and successful escape from Melville Island. While outside the prison working on a road crew, he managed to get away and eventually made his way to the Pubnico, a French speaking Acadian area in Argyll County, Nova Scotia. There he taught school. He also decided to stay in the colony, a choice which explains why he took an oath of allegiance to the English King on 20 May 1813. He finally settled in the Grosses Coques area, Digby County, married an Acadian girl, Marie Doucet, in the Fall of 1818, and fathered seven children, 4 sons and three daughters. [22]

Local records show that Bourneuf prospered for many years. He engaged in business as a merchant, ship builder and ship owner. He served as an MLA for Digby County in the Nova Scotia government from 1843-1859. Although his autobiography was written in 1859 for the purpose of informing his constituents of the challenges and successes of his early years, at age 72, his recollections of events fifty years ago may have been selective. However, his vivid description of his experiences on Melville Island remains a unique and valuable document. It is the only known personal account of a French POW in Nova Scotia or elsewhere in Canada, during the Napoleonic War.

 Austen Family Associations with Melville Island Prison 

Fig. 6: Fanny Palmer Austen by Robert Field, Private collection.

Among the steady stream of visitors to the POW Market on Melville Island were naval officers and their families. We can never know for sure, but it is possible that this group included members of the Austen family. In 1809 Captain Charles Austen, accompanied by his young wife Fanny, was in Halifax while his ship, HMS Indian, underwent a refit at the Dock Yard. Charles was a kind and considerate husband, the sort of man who would investigate what local entertainment might amuse his wife during what was likely her first visit to Halifax. Fanny’s letters within her family reveal that she was a diligent and canny shopper. [23] Thus a visit to the POW Market with Charles would suit her inclinations and interests.

During the summer of 1810, Fanny was once again in Halifax but Charles had to leave her with Admiral and Lady Warren while he transported troops to Portugal for participation in the Peninsular War. Fanny’s host, the vigorous Lady Warren, was someone who liked to see and be seen. It would be quite in her character to corral Fanny for a visit to the Prisoners’ Market. Her husband, Admiral Warren, was Commander-in-Chief of the North American Station, so he could readily arrange transportation as well as an appropriate escort. It is easy to imagine the unstoppable Lady Warren bargaining for a slew of birch bark sunhats [24] for her family back in England, or for an intricate bone ship’s model for the Admiral’s Christmas present. Maybe Fanny was tempted to acquire a carved child’s spoon for her tiny daughter, Cassy, back at the Admiral’s quarters.

Fig. 7: Captain Charles Austen by Robert Field, Private collection.

Charles Austen likely had a wider interest in the Melville Island prison. He would have known about the recently seized enemy ships that were brought into Halifax, [25] so he had reason to be curious about the destination of the French seamen as POWs. His background knowledge personalized their plight in his eyes. Moreover, Charles had taken the French privateer, La Jeune Estelle, as prize on 19 June 1809. Admiralty records show that one of her seamen, Francis Le Mure, was currently an inmate on Melville Island. [26]

Thiry-five years later, naval officer, Lt Herbert Grey Austen, spent time ashore in Halifax while he was serving under his father, Admiral Sir Francis Austen, Commander-in-Chief of the North American and West Indies Station, 1845-48. Herbert was a gifted amateur artist and he enjoyed sketching local views of historic and aesthetic interest. Melville Island caught his eye.

Fig. 8: French Prison Melville Island NWA [North West Arm] by Lt Herbert Grey Austen, 1847. [27]

Herbert chose to depict Melville Island as seen from a position on the eastern side of the North West Arm. His handsome sketch shows two principal buildings - the officers’ house, sited on a high elevation, on the right, and what had been the prisoners’ barracks, located on the left. The landscape on shore is wild and undeveloped, thus giving the impression of rural isolation. In the early 19th century, visitors to the POW market from Halifax ordinarily travelled the short distance across the North West Arm by boat to Melville Island. Herbert’s sketch shows where and how they would have reached their destination. 

Contemporary Update. 

British military use of Melville Island ended in 1906. Since 1947 the Island has been home to the Armdale Yacht club. The club house, a large white frame building, incorporates the original Officers House which was built in 1808. The former prison’s burial ground, located on an adjacent peninsula, known as Deadman’s Island, has become a Halifax city park. In it there are several informative plaques that identify the diverse inmates of the Melville Island Prison who were incarcerated there after the French POWs.[28] In a prominent place, a monument names the 196 American POWs who died on Melville Island at the time of the American war of 1812-14.

Fig. 9: The Deadman’s Island Park Sign, 24 Pinehaven Drive, Halifax.

Fig. 10: View of Deadman’s and the North West Arm from Melville Island

Fig.11: View of Melville Island from Deadman’s Island.

Fig. 12: View of Deadman’s Burial Ground and Melville Island. [29]

Endnotes:

[1] See my earlier blog posts about the Halifax Dock Yard (January February 2020) and naval prize (June2020). See also Kindred, “Two Brothers One City’ in Jane Austen and the North Atlantic, ed. Sarah Emsley, 2006, and Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister, 2017, 2018.

[2] By 1812 the complex also included: three cook houses, a gunners’ house, a turnkey’s house and store, fuel sheds, the agent’s office, a bell house, a guard house, nine sentry boxes, and four privies by the shore washed out twice a day by the high tides. See Shea and Watts, 26 [Hereafter, Shea].

[3] Note the moored Prison hulk and the beginning of a hospital for French prisoners in the fish sheds. Melville Island was then called Kavanagh’s Island. The original watercolour is in the collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

[4] NSARM Map Collection, 240-1812/REO A.8. See Shea, 25.

[5] Had he been a naval officer, Bourneuf would have qualified for supervised parole in Preston and Dartmouth. Had he expertise in a practical skill such as stone masonry, painting, carpentry, or some other useful trade he might have been allowed to live and work in Halifax. Such an arrangement would have required him to swear an oath of allegiance to the English King. There is no suggestion that Bourneuf considered this option when initially incarcerated.

[6] See Deveau.

[7] Apart from the difficulty of escaping the prison, there were personal deterrents such as lack of money to buy food and lodging; unfamiliarity with the surrounding terrain, lack of a map for plotting one’s escape route; the harshness of the Nova Scotian climate, in any season other than summer, lack of physical strength to endure the rigours of being on the run, inability to steal a boat in order to escape by water.

[8] It measured three hundred feet long, eighty feet wide and thirty feet high.

[9] According to Bourneuf, “in each port there were posts that reached to the ceiling and between the posts there were cross pieces, about six feet apart to which we attached our hammocks. There were also similar cross pieces which served as ladders to our hammocks. Those who slept higher risked breaking their necks, but they got use to it.” Deveau, 42-3.

[10] Dated 1929. NSARM Photograph Collection.

[11] Each mess had the right to object if they received rations of inferior quality and they were given replacements.

[12] Deveau, 51. Sometimes the inmates fished through the spaces between the stakes enclosing the prison yard or bought from local fishermen who came to the prison to sell their catch.

[13] Deveau, 43.

[14] The Hole was in the cellar under the prison. Daylight was visible only through a small opening above the door.

[15] Deveau, 50.

[16] NSARM ADM 103/173. See Appendix II as transcribed in Shea, 69-72 and 75-76.

[17] Deveau, 38. Other special tradesmen offered their skills. Jewellers, shoemakers, carpenters, schoolteachers, painters, dancing masters and music masters were in business. They willingly took commissions from Halifax townspeople.

[18] See Cuthbertson, 19.

[19] Deveau, 40.

[20] Cuthbertson,18, referring to Akins,156-157.

[21] Shea, 21-22.

[22] Bourneuf was introduced to the Doucet family by a former fellow POW, Jean Moore, from the ship Julilana. Moore had been incarcerated on Melville Island since 28 July 1808. See NSARM ADM 103/173, Shea, 76. Bourneuf’s autobiography stopped in 1818 at the time of his marriage.

[23] For example, writing to her sister in Bermuda, Fanny gives a full report:” I have executed your commissions the best of my ability. … I ventured to get you two pairs of black kid shoes (though you did not desire it) as they were rather cheap and very good.” Kindred, Transatlantic Sister,13.

[24] According to Bourneuf, a large quantity of birch bark hats was made by the POWs as there was a steady market for them in the West Indies.

[25] Charles was serving on the North American station when the French ships, Le Observateur, La Colibre, La Peraty and La Junon were taken as prize. He was even in Halifax at the Naval Yard when Bourneuf and the other seamen from the Furieuse arrived as captives in Halifax.

[26] See Shea, 71. In the original document, La Jeune Estelle is misspelled as La Jeanne Estelle.

[27] Austen’s sketch of Melville Island is from the cover image of Deadman’s by Shea and Watts. The original is in a private collection.

[28] See also Shea, 24-37; 42-46; 51-58.

[29] I am grateful to Brian Cuthbertson, Michele Raymond, Iris Shea and Heather Watts for their extensive research and publications about Deadman’s Island and the Melville Island Prison.

Photo credits:

Fig.3 and Figs 9-12 by Shelia Johnson Kindred

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Bibliography: 

Cuthbertson, Brian. Melville Prison Deadman’s Island: American and French Prisoners of War in Halifax 1794-1816. Halifax: Formac, 2009.

Deveau, J Alphonse, editor and translator. Diary of a Frenchman: Francois Lambert Bourneuf’s Adventures from France to Acadia 1787-1871. Halifax: Nimbus 1990.

Kindred, Sheila Johnson, “Two Brothers One City’ in Jane Austen and the North Atlantic, ed. Sarah Emsley 2006. Jane Austen Society, 2006.

Kindred, Sheila Johnson. Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen. Montreal: McGill Queens University Press 2017, 2018. 

Shea, Iris and Watts, Heather. Deadman’s: Melville Island and its Burial Ground. Glen Margaret: Glen Margaret 2005.

Watts, Heather and Raymond, Michele. Halifax’s North West Arm: An Illustrated History. Halifax: Formac, 2003.

Fanny Palmer Austen’s Accounts: Her Pocket Diary for 1814

Fig. 1: Fanny Palmer Austen

Sometimes a small, everyday object proves to be revelatory of the owner’s activities, attitudes and values. Such is the case with a pocket diary of Fanny Palmer Austen,[1] wife of Jane Austen’s brother Charles. Although Fanny’s letters provide a profile of many aspects of her unusual life as the wife of a naval officer,[2] the notations in her pocket diary reveal interesting details about her domestic activities, including her attention to her children’s needs, her commitment to economies and her generous nature. As such, it is a valuable primary source for coming to know Fanny and telling her story.

In late December 1813 or early in the New Year, Fanny acquired a small pocket diary, bound in red leather. Bearing the impressive title, The Pocket Magnet, or Elegant Picturesque Diary for 1814,[3] Fanny was to use it as a memo book to record in pencil her household accounts and additional information in the memoranda section at the back. Unfortunately, it has suffered from extensive erasing on pages from March to the end of July, but even so, it remains an intriguing source of information about Fanny’s undertakings.

Fig. 2 and Fig 3: Fanny’s Pocket Diary.

Her pocket diary is most informative for the months of January and February, a time when Fanny happened to be largely away from the 74 gun Namur, and where since 1812 she had been making a home for Charles and their young daughters. There were several reasons for being on shore. During January 1814 the weather was brutally frigid. The Thames froze over, and a great Frost Fair was held for days on the ice. These conditions forced Fanny and her daughters Cassandra (Cassy), Harriet and Fanny, ages 5, 3 and 2, to stay on in London after a Christmas visit to her parents at 22 Keppel Street. Then in February, Fanny and Charles paid a courtesy visit to the Sheerness home of his superior, Admiral Sir Thomas Williams and his wife, Lady Willliams, followed by another courtesy call on Commissioner and Mrs Lobb of the Sheerness Naval Yard. Given these circumstances, Fanny’s January and February purchases reflect her perception of what she would need when back on the Namur, but she was also purchasing items and services for her family’s immediate well being.

Fanny carefully recorded each item and its cost. At the time British currency was denoted in pounds (£), shillings (s), and pence (d). There were 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound. Some items would be useful for living on board: brushes (2s 6d), bed ticking (11s 3d) and furniture cotton (£1 13s 6d). Laundry was a regular necessity. There are eight separate entries for laundry: washing in general, also specifically for her children’s clothes, items belonging to Betsy, her nursemaid, and her own silk stockings. We know that Fanny favoured white clothing as was the custom of genteel ladies of the Regency Period.[4] Such preferences of dress entailed frequent laundry. Fanny’s expenditures for washing over these two months was £2 15s 3d.[5]

Fanny also purchased items to wear. There are entries for footwear: boots, three purchases of shoes (15s 3d), and socks (1s 6d).  Fanny also brought gloves (3s 6d), a gown for Betsy (12s), a waistcoat (12s 9d), possibly for Charles, and ribbons (1s 5d), probably for one of Fanny’s many sewing projects.[6] She included in her accounts the cost of binding books (17s) as well as postage (1s 7d), and packet letters (2s 1d),  presumably for her letters to Bermuda.[7] These are not surprising items as this was a reading family and one who valued close communication by letters with absent members.

Fanny’s notebook has few entries concerning food other than a can of bulk tea (5s 6d), sugar (2s.10d) and butter (3s 4d).  Omissions may be due to the number of weeks she stayed in other people’s houses – with her own parents in January and the Williams and the Lobbs in February. In addition, while on board she most likely shared in Charles’s standard naval rations, so confined her own purchases to better quality fresh foodstuffs, and items which were not part of naval issue.[8] She did budget for some healthy treats, namely fresh fruit (5s 2d), as well as less nutritious but tasty ones, such as cakes (1s 9d). She also bought toothbrushes (5s) in order to ensure good dental hygiene.

The catch all category of “Sundries” accounts for expenditures of 15s in January and February. What she included in this classification is anyone’s guess!  Fanny’s total expenditures for January and February amounted to £20 12s 10d.

Fig. 4: List of Books for Cassandra

Fanny’s caring attitude towards her daughters is reflected in several entries. By June, it was necessary to purchase shoes for little Fan (2s 8d), her youngest daughter. Her eldest, Cassy, was funded for a trip to Kintbury, Berkshire at the cost of £2. As Cassy was very prone to seasickness, she was often onshore under the care of her Aunt Harriet in London or Cassandra and Jane Austen at Chawton Cottage in Hampshire. Presumably, Cassy had been staying in Chawton during January and had accompanied one of her aunts to Kintbury. They would most likely be visiting Rev and Mrs. Fulwar Fowle, who had close ties with the Austens.[9]

Mothers of Fanny’s class were expected to begin their children’s education at home. At an early age, a little girl was taught to read, to spell, to write grammatically, to learn plain sewing, to understand the principles of the Christian religion, and to display good manners and good sense. Fanny intended to take her role as educator seriously, even though Cassy had earlier shown the signs of a reluctant scholar.[10]  Her “List of Books for Cassandra” included Mrs Trimmers Little Histories: Ancient History, Roman History and the History of England, as well as A Geographical Companion to Mrs Trimmer’s Histories, together with printed maps, keys and explanations.  Fanny also had French books in mind and thus listed St Quintin’s first Grammar and Brossert’s first Grammar. Perhaps Jane Austen recommended the St Quintin volume as he had been a master at the Ladies Boarding School, Reading, which she had attended at the age of nine. Mrs Barbauld’s Hymns in Prose and Dr Watt’s Hymns in Verse could be used for religious teachings. Fanny also chose Original Poems for Children in 2 vols and Simple Stories in Verse in order to introduce literature into the curriculum. Fanny’s choices were investments as her other daughters, Harriet and Fan, would become students in due course. Another child was expected in September.

Fanny was once more in London at her parent’s home in May, some of June and July 1814 as measles had got among the children of the Namur and she did not want her three girls infected. Unfortunately, there are 19 erasures in the first section for May, although entries for shoes for a child (10s 3d), cakes (11s 6d) and washing (2s) are still detectable. Only two items are identifiable for early June: toy (6d) and cakes (6d). Late June entries are more informative: coach hire (5s 6d), washing for Captn. Austen (13s), shoes for Fanny (2s 8d), washing (4s 11d), ribbons (8d) and cakes (6d). Fanny was making the same sort of purchases as she had done earlier in the year. Based on entries which can be deciphered, her expenditures for May came to £3 0s 6d and for June, £4 18s 7d.

From the totals for January, February, May and June, we know that Fanny spent £29 5s 11 d.[11] This is a partial picture of her domestic accounts for the first half of 1814, but her choices suggest Fanny’s commitment to economies. Her expenditure for gloves is close to that spent by her sister-in-law, Jane Austen, who was a canny and careful shopper. Jane paid 4 shillings for gloves in 1811; [12] Fanny paid 3s 6d in 1814. Jane Austen purchased black ribbon (1s 1d) to trim her lilac sarsenet dress in March 1814.[13] The same year Fanny bought ribbons twice (2s 1d).

Fanny’s letter of 5 February 1814 makes explicit reference to her financial prudence. She told her sister Harriet in London that she will not be ordering “very handsome velvets [from Holland] at about 4 Guineas[14] a dress,” as she and Charles are currently cash poor.[15] Although Charles’s salary on the Namur was £500 per annum, given the Admiralty’s pay practices a portion of his current salary would likely be withheld until as late as March of the next year.[16] Moreover, his posting to the Namur would be ending in October 1814. It would be prudent to have something put aside for the future in case he did not get another ship and found himself on shore on half-pay.[17]  

Irrespective of Fanny’s attention to careful spending, several entries suggest gift-giving and generosity. According to her accounts, Fanny spent £20 12s 10d in January and February. Nonetheless, during those months she bought a gift for her sister, Esther, in Bermuda, described as “Cap for Mrs. Esten” (£1 4s.), and provided a gown for Betsy, her nursemaid (12s), and she also paid for Betsy’s washing (2s). She “gave away” 17s 6d, presumably to those in need. Fanny was also diligent in her search for bargain prices for fresh foods for the London Palmer family. For example, her letters mention purchases of fish and eggs[18] and her pocket diary notes that “Miss Palmer [her sister Harriet] has settled for the ham and butter,” items that Fanny had acquired on her behalf. 

A mysterious entry, which is not dated, occurs on a memorandum page. Fanny recorded that she “lent Mr. RP £4.” A possible candidate for this largesse was Fanny’s only brother, law student Robert John Palmer.[19] As far as she knew, he was still incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp in Verdun, France, where a prisoner’s level of comfort depended on his financial resources.[20] If Fanny could get money to him, even as a loan, this would be beneficial. It would also be evidence of her generosity.   

Practical, caring, economical and generous: Fanny’s pocket diary records choices which suggest she had these traits. She also appears to have been a resourceful housewife. It is a great pity that so much of her diary was defaced by erasures. However, more than enough of it remains to give us an intriguing look into Fanny’s domestic and family-oriented world.[21]  

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[1] I am grateful for access to study Fanny’s pocket diary provided by the late David Gilson, its then owner, and Chris Viveash.

[2] The letters are transcribed and contextualized in Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2017, 2018 [hereafter JATS].

[3] It measures about 10 cm wide and 7cm long.

[4] Jane Austen described Fanny as looking “as neat and white as possible this morning” See Jane Austen’s Letters, 4th ed., ed. by Deirdre Le Faye, 15 October 1813, 249 [hereafter Letters].

[5] Subsequently Fanny paid 17s 11d for laundry services in June.

[6] Alternatively, perhaps the ribbons were intended for her daughters’ hair.

[7] In 1814 two of Fanny’s chief correspondents, her sister, Esther, and her husband, James Esten, were living in Bermuda.

[8] He regularly received rations of beef, pork, biscuit, oatmeal, pease, sugar, cheese, butter and beer.

[9] Cassandra had been engaged to Rev. Fulwar Fowle’s nephew, Tom, who died of yellow fever in 1797. Fulwar’s son, Thomas (1793-1822), was already known to Cassy from his time as a midshipman aboard Charles Austen’s sloop, the Indian, and later as a Lieutenant on board Charles’s vessel, HMS Namur.

[10] In early October 1813, Fanny wrote her brother-in-law, James Esten: “Cassy begins now to read very prettily, but I have had an amazing deal of trouble with her not owing to a dullness of comprehension but a dislike to learning.” See Fanny to James Esten, 4 October 1813, JATS, 127. 

[11] She spent £8 13s 1½ d in May and June, making a total for four months of £29 5s 11½ d.

[12] See Robert Hume, “Money in Jane Austen,” Review of English Studies 64, (2012), 291.

[13] See Austen, Letters, 6 March 1814, 269.

[14] A guinea was worth one pound and one shilling.

[15] See Fanny to her sister Harriet Palmer, 5 February 1814, JATS, 148.

[16] For Admiralty pay practices, see JATS, 94.

[17] Half pay was not literally half but a fixed stipend, according to rank and at a minimal amount.

[18] See Fanny to Harriet, 6 February 1814, JATS, 149.

[19] If this is so, it seems odd she would refer to her brother in such a formal way, yet such terminology was expected, even within families. Elsewhere in the diary she writes: “Miss Palmer had settled for the ham and butter.” This is a reference to her sister Harriet.

[20] See blog post, 31 December 2021, War Time Worries of Fanny Palmer Austen and Jane Austen.

[21] A version of this essay appeared in The Jane Austen Society Report for 2018, 34-39.

Tagged: Fanny Palmer Austen, Fanny Austen’s  Pocket Diary, Fanny Austen’s Domestic Arrangements, Educating British Children in 1814

Fanny Palmer Austen: Her Silhouette and Its Significance

Fig 1: Fanny Palmer Austen’s Silhouette by John Meirs.

In the early nineteenth century, families treasured images of their loved ones, images created by way of drawings or portraits in oils. A popular, cheaper, alternative source of portraiture was the silhouette. Among known silhouettes of members of the Austen family[1] is one of Fanny Palmer Austen.[2] We don’t know at whose behest a sitting was arranged, but sometime after she  arrived in England in 1811, Fanny’s silhouette[3] was taken  in London at the fashionable shop of Meirs and Field at 111 The Strand. What does Fanny’s  silhouette reveal about her appearance, even her character?

What is a Silhouette?

In the eighteenth century blackened cut-paper images became a highly favoured form of miniature portraiture. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, this fashion for profiles arose in part from a resurgence of interest in neoclassical design that grew in the 1770s at the time of the archaeological discoveries of ancient Roman sites at Herculaneum and Pompeii. Apart from cultural and historical interests, silhouettes came to be valued as reminders of one’s family and friends. Portrait artists set up business in large centres, including London. Images were quickly executed, readily copied in multiples and offered at very affordable prices, ranging from about two shillings to one guinea. From 1788 to 1821, John Meirs was highly acclaimed for his skills in this art form. He is said to have amassed 100,000 profiles in his shop by 1821. At his death, his estate was worth £20,000 pounds.

 Making Fanny’s Profile

 The procedure was straightforward and efficient. Fanny would have been positioned on a chair, in front of a glass screen behind which was affixed a sheet of plain paper. By remaining absolutely still for a few minutes, light from a candle beside her would cast her shadow on the sheet of paper, allowing John Meirs to rapidly trace her life-size profile on it. He then used a pantograph to reduce the size to 6½ cm. by 8 cm.

Fig 2: “Method of Taking Profiles,” Ladies Monthly Magazine, October 1799.

Fig. 3: How a Pantograph Works.[4]

Fanny's silhouette shows her head and shoulders.[5] Here is a young woman with a short neck, rounded features and a fashionable hairstyle. Her long locks are twisted and caught up at the back of her head, with the suggestion of curls on her forehead.

The image still required finishing touches. First, the profile was painted black and affixed on an oval of plaster. Then, Meir’s young partner, John Field, would have enhanced aspects of her head, her hair and shoulders by a process known as “bronzing.”  To this end, he used gold paint to highlight contrasts of texture and detail. The finished product was put under glass, secured in an oval frame and mounted on a rectangular black background board.[6]

Revealing Character - Conveying Likeness?

The popular views of Swiss poet and theologian Johann Kaspar Lavater, author of  Essays on Physiognomy,[7] fueled nineteenth-century speculations about what a silhouette revealed. According to Lavater, who illustrated his book with many black profiles, it was possible to discover a person’s character by concentrating on an individual’s main features. Such examinations would reveal both virtues and vices. Profilists, such as Meirs, were also attracted to the idea that one’s appearance was revelatory of character. His trade label, affixed to the back of Fanny’s profile, claims that he “executed likenesses in profiles with unequalled accuracy which convey the most forcible expressions of character.”[8]   Meirs most likely hoped that such a claim would advance his business, in light of its consistency with Lavater’s popular views, but he wisely refrained from inferring specific, “expressions of character” from his profiles, leaving that conjectural task to his clients and their friends.

Twentieth-century silhouette collector Peggy Hickman, in an article titled “Silhouettes from Jane Austen’s Family”[9] treats Fanny’s silhouette as a source of information. She alludes to Fanny’s physical features. According to Hickman,  Fanny was “no beauty,” rather a young woman with “blunt features and a short, thick neck.”[10] This seems unfair. True, Fanny’s neck is short but she was of petite stature, so the size of her neck can be viewed as proportionate to the rest of her body. In addition, blunt features, as they appear one-dimensionally in profile, may not form so unattractive a face when viewed from a frontal perspective. Hickman’s assessment of Fanny’s lack of beauty seems unnecessarily harsh on slight evidence.

Hickman also appears sympathetic to Meirs’s sentiments about what a profile can convey. In particular, she ascribes a “determined expression” to Fanny. She does not explain what she considers to be indicators of determination- might they be the shape and positioning of the mouth? However, simply observing the area around Fanny’s mouth could just as easily trigger other assessments of what her expression conveys. Moreover, without a fuller description and accompanying qualifiers, it is unclear whether Fanny’s so-called “determined expression” is meant to indicate a desirable character trait or not. In some situations,  it could be good to be resolute, in others, being adamant or single-minded would indicate a deficit of character. Hickman adduces no other sources of information about Fanny’s attitudes, behaviour and opinions which would independently confirm Fanny was a “determined” individual. Even if she does look determined, perhaps this was just a fleeting expression which Meirs happened to catch and not an indicator of an established character trait.

Conclusion:  

Fanny’s profile has definite merit from an aesthetic point of view. It is a beautifully executed example of Meirs and Field’s mastery of their art. From an informational point of view, the silhouette does convey some limited details about Fanny’s physical features, in particular her interest in the style of the day, as witnessed by the fashionable arrangement of her hair. Yet, taken as a putative indicator of her character, Fanny’s profile is a disappointment.

Other materials are needed for a fuller appreciation of Fanny in all her complexity. Significantly, there is one other visual representation of Fanny, a portrait painted in oils in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1810 by the talented British artist, Robert Field.

Fig. 4: Robert Field’s portrait of Fanny

In it, he captures his subject’s face in full, frontal detail, including her wonderful red-gold hair, her pleasing figure, serious and candid expression, clear blue eyes and direct gaze. By dint of its artistry, this representation of Fanny is a richer, more evocative image than the inherently limited, one-dimensional silhouette. A full appreciation of an individual’s character depends in addition on her opinions, thoughts and actions. Notably, Fanny’s surviving letters, written in 1810 and then continuing from 1812 to 1814, give evidence of a brave, loyal, caring and affectionate woman, wife and mother.[11] A study of these documents yields a treasure trove of information about Fanny’s character that is far more revealing than whatever clues may be adduced from her profile.

 All things considered, Fanny’s silhouette deserves appreciation as the intricate and handsome object that it is, as well as the associations it may trigger for further consideration.[12]  

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[1] There are existing silhouettes of Rev and Mrs. George Austen, Cassandra Austen, Edward Austen and his adopted parents Thomas and Catherine Knight and also one said to be of Jane Austen.

[2] Fanny’s profile on plaster was retained by her husband, Charles Austen, and his succeeding family for 110 years after her death until his grandchildren, spinster sisters Emma Florence and Jane, sold it to Mr. Frederick Lovering in 1924. When his collection was auctioned in 1948, the silhouette was bought by Peggy Hickman.

[3] What we would today call a silhouette was then known in  England as a “shade” or “profile,” if it was a portrait.

[4] Deirdre Le Faye outlines this procedure in her article “Silhouettes of the Revd William Knight and his family,” The Jane Austen Society Report V, 138-39.

[5] Thanks to Darren Bevin of the Chawton House Library for providing the dimensions of Fanny’s profile.

[6] This copy of Fanny’s silhouette can be seen in the Oak Room at Chawton House, Chawton, Kent.

[7] It was published in translation from the original German in 1793 and became a best seller in England. See Le Faye, “Silhouettes of the Revd William Knight and his family,” 137.

[8] Alternative wording on a Meirs profile of 1813 speaks of it conveying “the most forcible expression and animated character”

[9] Peggy Hickman, “Silhouettes of Jane Austen’s Family” in Shades from Jane Austen, written and illustrated by Honoria D. Marsh and Peggy Hickman, Perry Jackson Ltd, 1975. Hickman was an early owner of Fanny’s silhouette, acquiring it in 1948. After her death, it was sold in 1993 at auction for £2,020.  Later it was acquired by Sandra Lerner, who gave it to the Chawton House.

[10] Peggy Hickman, “Silhouettes of the Austen Family,” plate XV.

[11] Fanny’s letters are held by the Morgan Library and Museum, New York City, MA 4500. They are contextualized and explored in my book, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister: The Life and Letters of Fanny Palmer Austen, MQUP, 2017. 2018.

[12] A version of this essay appeared in The Jane Austen Society Report for 2016, 23-27.

Narratives of Naval Wives during the Napoleonic Wars: Fanny in Fact and Jane in Fiction.

Fanny Palmer Austen was married to Captain Charles Austen, Jane's brother. Her friendship with Jane allowed Fanny to share stories about her experience of the naval world. Later, Jane created naval wives in her novel, Persuasion. How might Fanny's life story have impacted Jane's writing?

I will be giving a talk on this topic on Zoom to the Eastern Washington Northern Idaho (EWANID) Region of the Jane Austen Society of North America on Saturday, November 6, 2021, at 11:00 am Pacific Time (3:00 pm AST). All are welcome.

This is a free event but registration is necessary. To sign up, you may go to the EWANID webpage: jasnaewanid.org/events/

Tags: Fanny Palmer Austen, Jane Austen, Naval Wives, Napoleonic Wars, Persuasion

Fanny, Jane and Seaside Watering Places

Dear Readers,

Due to writing deadlines, my next posts will be on 29 October and 30 December 2021. Keep safe.

Sheila

Introduction

In the early nineteenth century seaside resorts became a popular destination for relaxation and sociability among the gentry class. The vogue for sea air and sea bathing were motivating factors as were opportunities for refined entertainments and diversions. Jane Austen enjoyed sea bathing during family holidays at Sidmouth, Dawlish, Teignmouth and Lyme Regis between 1801 and 1804. Fanny Palmer Austen enjoyed similar pleasures of the seaside after she reached England in 1811. As the two sisters-in-law came to know each other better, they found they shared a mutual interest in all manner of activities relating to the sea, including the relaxing life at seaside resorts. Fanny had much to tell Jane about her experiences at sea and on shore, and Jane found cause to use her acquired knowledge of the seaside in writing her later novels. In particular, the phenomenon of the seaside resort became the setting for her last, unfinished novel, Sanditon.

Fanny at Southend

After the remoteness and often foul weather conditions suffered during the winter and spring aboard HMS Namur, Fanny Palmer Austen keenly anticipated summer holidays at a seaside resort. During 1812 and 1813, Fanny’s father, John Grove Palmer, arranged a holiday for his whole family at Southend, Essex.[1] The party included Fanny’s parents, her naval husband Captain Charles Austen, their young daughters, sister Harriet, and by times her sister Esther and her sons.[2] Southend turned out to be an excellent choice for the scheme. It was conveniently located 42 miles from London where the Palmers lived and a short distance by sea from the Namur at the Nore anchorage for Fanny and her children.[3] In addition, Charles could readily join them when he had shore leave.

 Southend was one of the up-and-coming watering places of the period. The resort’s early developers foresaw the virtue of creating a “new town” to the west of the original fishing village, on the cliff tops, at a sufficient elevation to ensure a pleasing and panoramic perspective. Its centrepiece was a row of smart houses available for rent, known as the Royal Terrace, so named after the visit of Princess Caroline of Brunswick, wife of the Prince Regent, in 1801. Adjoining the terrace was the Royal Hotel which contained a handsomely furnished assembly room suitable for balls and a coffee room. Adjacent to it stood a new building housing a Circulating Library. The layout included a north-south leading High Street and an adjoining road leading to the original lower town, where the Southend Theatre was situated. By the time the Palmer-Austen party frequented Southend, the buildings and amenities of the fashionable core of the resort were complete, so Fanny and her family were able to enjoy the variety of facilities it offered.

Fig 1: The Terrace Southend, 1808. Note the bathing machines waiting for clients on the shore.[4]

On fine days visitors greeted each other as they walked on the broad gravelled promenade along the Royal Terrace or descended through the attractive shrubbery on the cliff side, where criss-crossing paths invited access to the sand beach. The Royal Hotel offered multiple amenities for public gatherings and the proprietor, D Miller, advertised that “dinners [could be] dressed and sent out to private homes at the shortest notice.”[5] The hotel also provided “Bathing Machines with proper Guides,” a service that made good the promise that Southend offered “particular advantages … for the comforts and conveniences of sea bathing.”[6] Warm saltwater baths could also be had at a site below the Royal Hotel.  

Fig. 2: Sketch of the Royal Hotel[7]

After the isolation of life aboard the Namur, Fanny enjoyed the sociability of her immediate family as well as the varied company provided by the comings and goings of many other visitors. She likely met others, like herself, who were part of the wider naval world. Southend was a popular destination for shore-based naval families, including naval officers reuniting with wives and children while their vessels were being repaired at the close by Sheerness Dockyard. Fanny mentions socializing with a Lt MacNamara, a marine from the Namur, who was staying in Southend during the summer of 1813.[8] Other officers from the Namur may have also headed for Southend for relaxation and entertainment. In general, Southend “tended to attract the … quiet and cultured sort of visitor.”[9] This description, with its implied promise of congenial camaraderie, suggests that Southend would have suited the social interests of the Palmer-Austen party.

Georgian society of the period enthusiastically endorsed the health-giving properties of sea air and bathing. Fanny had already praised the virtues of sea air in letters to her family. Writing from aboard the Namur, she said of her sister, Esther, who was visiting in London, that a “change of air [would] be of great service”[10] and that the bracing sea air would “restore [your] appetite sooner than anything.”[11]  She does not mention who in their party enjoyed sea bathing at Southend. As for herself, Fanny was four months pregnant in 1812 so may have demurred, although one of her sisters, Esther or Harriet, possibly accompanied Fanny’s intrepid elder daughter, Cassy, into the sea. The child was a prime candidate for saltwater therapy after a difficult spring aboard the Namur where she was very prone to sea sickness. In later years sea bathing became an established practice for the Austen children, their grandmother, Mrs. George Austen, noting in 1815 that they were “better for the sea air and bathing"[12] after a seaside holiday at Broadstairs, Kent.

A particular bonus for Fanny was the presence of the Circulating Library situated next to the Royal Hotel. The wide development of such libraries afforded new freedoms to a woman of the gentry, - a freedom to go to the library unescorted, a freedom to choose a book for herself from a selection of titles with women in mind. Once Fanny joined, she was entitled to borrow books on a wide range of subjects, including the latest novels, biography, poetry and history. After periods of seclusion on the Namur, going to the library to choose a book with the prospect of returning for another was surely a pleasure. Circulating libraries also catered for other female tastes by stocking trinkets and decorative items such as fans, ribbons, jewelry, parasols and toys for children, as well as gloves and sealing wax. Here was an opportunity for a little frivolous holiday shopping should Fanny be tempted.

Fig. 3: The purpose-built Library is the building on the far right.[13]

The Southend Theatre, opened in 1804, was another attractive destination. By 1810, actor-manager Samuel Jerrold was presenting a summer season of fully mounted productions, They included Adelgatha: or the Fruits of a Single Error, which promised patrons the sight of “Rocks, and a Waterfall, Grand Gothic Palace, Subterranean Cavern, and Grand Banquet.”[14] Fanny’s letters indicate that she enjoyed music and theatrical presentations, so whatever the playbill during Fanny’s time at Southend, a family outing to the theatre would be particularly enjoyable for her.

Southend and Sanditon Compared

Fanny was at Southend from July to September 1813. The following month, she and Charles with two of their children, paid a week’s visit to Godmersham Park, the estate of his brother, Edward Knight, where Jane Austen was also staying. The coincidence of their mutually happy visits afforded Fanny and Jane the opportunity to spend time together and to share family news, including anecdotes about Fanny’s Southend holiday. Although such information might be considered merely family chit chat, Fanny’s descriptions of the setting, as well as her opinions about the social and cultural dynamics at Southend, may have been of use to Jane when she began to create her own fictional watering place in her novel, Sanditon.

Sanditon is a satirical story about the alterations occurring in a little fishing village during its transformation into a profitable seaside resort. It touches on the themes of business speculation, hypochondria, health exploitation, escalating tourism and its effect upon rural communities and traditional values. The reader meets a cast of memorable and amusingly portrayed characters: Mr Tom Parker, landed gentleman and lately an enthusiast turned property speculator, Lady Denham, a rich widow, the grand lady of the village and the co-investor in Parker’s scheme, the hypochondriacal Parker siblings, Diana, Susan and Arthur, and their dashing brother, Sidney. Austen’s developing plot hinges on the activities and aspirations of other Sanditon inhabitants as well: the enigmatic, beautiful Clara Brereton, poor cousin of Lady Denham, the lecherous Sir Edward Denham who hopes to inherit from Lady Denham and marry wealth, a highly anticipated visitor, the half mulatto heiress Miss Lambe, and the heroine, Charlotte Heywood, who observes and judges the inhabitants and visitors to Sanditon as she contemplates the different illusions of reality about the resort which they entertain. Begun in January 1817, and left unfinished on 18 March, only 20% of the novel was completed before Jane’s death in July. Sadly, the reader can only guess at how the love interest would have developed among the young people and speculate about who will gain and who will lose, as the scheme to develop Sanditon proceeds.

Fig. 4: Jane Austen’s Sanditon with an Essay by Janet Todd (2019)

The village of Sanditon and its social life bears some interesting resemblances to Fanny’s knowledge of Southend. Austen conveys a strong sense of Sandition’s physical features, both existing and planned by Parker, in order to engender a sense of the resort it will become. Such a place required a number of specific amenities all of which Fanny and her family found at Southend. Indeed, Fanny could convey her personal perceptions to Jane about the look and feel of Southend, along with a description of the layout of the purposely built Southend “new town.” [15] Intriguingly, a similar grouping of interrelated buildings appears in Sanditon. The scene is described thus: “about a hundred yards from the brow of a steep, but not very lofty cliff, [there was] … one short row of smart looking houses, called the Terrace, with a broad walk in front…. In this row [was] the library, a little detached from it, the hotel and billiard room - here began the descent to the beach, and to the bathing machines – and this was therefore the favorite spot for beauty and fashion” (chapter 4, 173).[16] In effect, there is a persuasive parallel between the physical layout of Southend as Fanny knew it and of Sanditon as Jane described it.

Fanny knew how important the fashionable core of Southend was for meeting, socializing and the sharing of news. She would be able to describe the dynamics of this social hub in some detail. She could recount how friendships were made and relationships advanced as individuals interacted in the environs of the Terrace, the Hotel and the Library. There is a similar busyness in Sanditon. Much of the interaction among the characters takes place on the promenade in front of the Terrace, in one of the Terrace Houses or at the Hotel.[17]

In addition, the Library in Sanditon is both a cultural and social centre. Sanditon’s heroine, Charlotte, is taken on an early visit there and invited to appreciate its merits, both in the line of books to borrow and trinkets available for purchase. In the novel, the library functions as an essential component of the resort experience, as it did for Fanny in Southend. It was another pleasurable feature of her holiday she could share with Jane, perhaps even telling her what books she had borrowed.

A further benefit of a visit to a seaside resort was thought to be the healthful effects of exposure to sea air, and even sea bathing. Fanny had praised the restorative virtues of bracing sea air in letters to her family.[18] In Jane Austen’s Emma (1815), it is the apothecary, Mr Wingfield, who advises John Knightley to take his family to a seaside resort, prescribing “for all the children, but particularly for the weakness in little Bella’s throat, - both sea air and bathing” (Emma, chapter 12). Austen specifically named their destination, “South End.” Later in Sanditon, Austen mentions “a family of children who came from London for sea air after whooping cough” (chapter 4, 172). This behaviour is resonant with the views and practices of Fanny’s family.

As Jane’s letters between May 1801 to September 1803 do not exist, there is no primary source about the Austen family experiences during their seaside visits to Sidmouth, Dawlish, and Teignmouth. Consequently, we don’t know how Jane’s response to seaside resorts might have influenced her imaginative construction of Sanditon as a watering place.[19] In contrast, it is possible to reconstruct Fanny’s opinions about Southend and appreciate their descriptive content.  It would not be surprising if Jane found them useful in creating Sanditon’s evolving fashionable centre.

Appendix:  Modern Southend today:

Fig 5: The Royal Terrace and Royal Hotel[20]

Fig. 6: The Royal Terrace

Fig 7: Decorative iron railing along the Royal Terrace

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[1] Fanny notes in a letter to her sister Esther: “We are going to Southend tomorrow or the next day to look at a house which Papa thinks will answer for you all, and if we approve of it, I believe he will take it” (5 March 1812). See Sheila Johnson Kindred, Jane Austen’s Transatlantic Sister (hereafter JATS), (2017, 2018), 102-03.

[2] In 1813 the party included Palmer Esten but lacked Esther Esten and her son Hamilton who had returned to Bermuda.

[3] Since January 1812, Fanny had been making a home for Charles and their daughters aboard HMS Namur, the guard and receiving ship at the Nore anchorage offshore from Sheerness, Kent.

[4] Published by Kershaw & Son, no. 619.

[5] Advertisement for the Royal Hotel, 1813.

[6] Chelmsford Chronicle, 21 July 1813.

[7] Inserted in Europe Magazine, April 1813.

[8] Fanny to Esther Esten, 11 March 1814. See JATS, 156-157.

[9] See William Pollitt, Southend 1760-1860 (1939), 26.

[10] Fanny to James Esten, 21 January 1812. See JATS, 101.

[11] Fanny to Esther Esten, 5 March 1812. See JATS, 103.

[12] “A Letter from Mrs George Austen to Anna Lefroy,” The Jane Austen Society Report for 2003, 228.

[13] Print, 1808.

[14] See Michael Slater, Douglas Jerrold 1803-1857 (2000), 22.

[15] See paragraphs 3 and 4 above and Figs 1- 3.

[16] All page references are from Jane Austen: Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon, ed. Margaret Drabble, Penguin Books (1974).

[17] The plot depends on there being occasions and places when characters can meet each other frequently, either by design or by chance. The close spatial relations among the Terrace, the Hotel and the Library facilitate such interactions and make them appear plausible. In chapter 7, we learn that “the Terrace was the attraction to all; every body who walked, must begin with the Terrace” (183). Charlotte has a tete-a-tete with Lady Denham on one of the green benches on the Terrace (186-189), an encounter which gives her an insight into Lady Denham’s character. Arthur Parker intends to “take several turns on the Terrace” (chapter 10, 201) every morning for exercise but one suspects his real motivation is to see who is out walking with whom and where are they are heading. Once the Parker siblings have secured lodgings for themselves on the Terrace, it is essential to their interests that they be able to monitor the comings and goings to the hotel and the movements of Mrs Griffith and her party, who are lodging in “the corner house of the Terrace” (chapter 11, 207).

[18] See notes 10 and 11.

[19] Anthony Edmonds and Janet Clark have focused attention on another seaside resort associated with Jane Austen. See Anthony Edmonds, “Edward Ogle of Worthing and Jane Austen’s Sanditon,” The Jane Austen Society Report for 1810, 114-128 and Janet Clark, “Jane Austen and Worthing,” The Jane Austen Society Report for 2008, 86-105.  

[20] Photo credits 5-7, Hugh Kindred