Over the years I tried to visit as many places connected to Jane Austen as possible, but for quite some time I stayed away from Winchester, not really wishing to see the place where her journey untimely ended.
I did get over that particular reluctance some ten or twelve years ago and I’m glad I did, Winchester is a glorious place.
But I still approached it with the old reluctance on the day of the commemoration (as you might have gathered from my last blog post).
Thankfully I needn’t have worried. I didn’t even need the dark glasses in the cathedral, during the service – except for a minute or so, when Jane Austen’s prayer was read. Despite the solemnity of the event, it was a celebration of her life and legacy. The cathedral was full to capacity, the service was beautiful, heartfelt and warm, and the choice to include one of Jane Austen’s own prayers was a wonderful touch and deeply moving.
If you’ve read them before you already know – if not, you can easily imagine – that there are no flourishes in them, no wordy embellishments, just the warmth and common sense we find in everything she wrote. Which is probably why her prayer spoke directly to the soul when she gave thanks for all blessings, for “all hours of safety, health and peace, of domestic comfort and innocent enjoyment” and prayed for mercy to all mankind and “the safety and welfare of family and friends, wheresoever dispersed.”
Thankfully I needn’t have worried. I didn’t even need the dark glasses in the cathedral, during the service – except for a minute or so, when Jane Austen’s prayer was read. Despite the solemnity of the event, it was a celebration of her life and legacy. The cathedral was full to capacity, the service was beautiful, heartfelt and warm, and the choice to include one of Jane Austen’s own prayers was a wonderful touch and deeply moving.
If you’ve read them before you already know – if not, you can easily imagine – that there are no flourishes in them, no wordy embellishments, just the warmth and common sense we find in everything she wrote. Which is probably why her prayer spoke directly to the soul when she gave thanks for all blessings, for “all hours of safety, health and peace, of domestic comfort and innocent enjoyment” and prayed for mercy to all mankind and “the safety and welfare of family and friends, wheresoever dispersed.”
Just as I had hoped, a great number of friends were gathered there, and it was such a great joy to share this moment with them, and then see them again in Chawton on the following day.
I only wish other dear friends could have been there too, but I know that even if they couldn’t be there in person a little bit of their heart and soul is always in Chawton.
We had all sorts of thoughts for the rest of the day, like stopping in tranquil Steventon where Jane Austen’s earliest novels took shape, and if the house where she began to write First Impressions is no longer standing, at least the church where she worshipped still is.
I wish we could go there, and then finish the day with the planned pyjama party and some more Darcy champagne (yes, I had to stock up on that when I first saw it in the shops!)
But I simply couldn’t turn down the awesome opportunity to appear on BBC Breakfast News on the following morning along with my friend Sophie Andrews, Austen blogger at Laughing with Lizzie and Zack MacLeod Pinsent, the fascinating Regency tailor featured on My Friend Jane. So there we were, Sophie and I, hopping on a train to Manchester at incredibly short notice, so that we could be there, ready and waiting, on the following morning.
It was an absolutely surreal experience to arrive in the studios (not quite at the crack of dawn, but close enough), be treated to a session of professional styling and find ourselves on the very famous couch, talking to Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty about how Jane Austen and her world became a way of life for us.
It was an absolutely surreal experience to arrive in the studios (not quite at the crack of dawn, but close enough), be treated to a session of professional styling and find ourselves on the very famous couch, talking to Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty about how Jane Austen and her world became a way of life for us.
If the vast majority of people are incredulous, bemused or amused about our choices and her overwhelming influence on us and what we do, Janeites need no further explanation to understand what makes us tick, because the same great lady hugely influences them too.
So, just as most of us have always wished, this isn’t just the year when we commemorate her passing, but a time to remember that her legacy has endured for 200 hundred years, that her work is not merely relevant to us today, but celebrated more than it has ever been, and hopefully it will still be celebrated for many years to come. What she would have made of it all we’ll never know. Maybe she would have also been amused, bemused or incredulous. But I dearly hope she’d also be pleased.
So, just as most of us have always wished, this isn’t just the year when we commemorate her passing, but a time to remember that her legacy has endured for 200 hundred years, that her work is not merely relevant to us today, but celebrated more than it has ever been, and hopefully it will still be celebrated for many years to come. What she would have made of it all we’ll never know. Maybe she would have also been amused, bemused or incredulous. But I dearly hope she’d also be pleased.
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