on tuesday, i went to jane austen's house.
her actual house. the one where she wrote all of her novels. i got to go inside of it.
dreams do come true.
our visit was to chawton, the town where jane lived with her mother and sister for the last eight years of her life. our first stop was at the chawton house library - the house jane's brother, edward, lived in that has been turned into a library of books by female authors from the 17th thru 19th centuries.
history lesson: the austen's weren't very well off, so edward, the third son, was adopted by some wealthy cousins of theirs, the knights, so that he could be the heir to their estate (apparently this was very common at the time). so he grew up edward knight and inherited three properties from his adopted family. after his biological father died, his mother and sisters needed a place to live, so he offered to let them live on one of his estates, and they chose chawton. fun story, right?
anyway, chawton house has been really well preserved over the years and is now being used as a library, open to the public. it's a gorgeous house, with beautifully carved wood paneling and giant fireplaces in almost every room. and they host events there all the time... including weddings. start saving now, papa! just kidding. kind of.
after touring the library, we set off for chawton cottage, where jane lived.
i had goosebumps as i walked through the house. it was almost surreal. i mean, she lived there. she actually lived there. she wrote all of her novels at this table:
how freaking cool is that?! i don't have anything else to say. i'm just in awe.
after leaving chawton cottage, we had one more stop to make. it was sort of a bonus treat because it wasn't part of the original itinerary, but we made time to go see...
jane austen's grave! she's buried in winchester cathedral, which is not too far from chawton, so we made a quick stop to go see it. her tombstone says:
"in memory of jane austen, youngest daughter of the late rev. george austen, formerly rector of steventon in this county. she departed this life on the 18th of july, 1817, aged 41, after a long illness supported with the patience and hopes of a christian.
"the benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper, and the extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the regard of all who knew her, and the warmest love of her intimate connections.
"their grief is in proportion to their affection, they know their loss to be irreparable, but in their deepest affliction they are consoled by a firm though humble hope that her charity, devotion, faith, and purity have rendered her soul acceptable in the sight of her Redeemer."
amen.
wednesday was very chill. everyone was pretty worn out from our constant traveling over the last week, so most of us decided to just hang out in oxford and get some work done. a group of about eight of us took lunches to university park and had a little picnic. it was so cute! and really nice to get to enjoy the beautiful weather - it's been sunny and cool here all week. i know you really don't care what i ate for lunch, but i gotta tell ya, i tried a hard-boiled egg and spinach sandwich and it was good. you should probably try it sometime.
after our picnic, a few of us decided to check out blackwell's bookshop, a highly-recommended bookstore just down the street from wadham. y'all... this place was magical. six floors - six floors - of books. old ones, new ones, skinny ones, fat ones. there were books everywhere. it was fantastic. i literally feel like i could spend a solid week in that store and still not want to leave. a little part of me hopes that's what heaven looks like.
last night, we went to see the globe's traveling production of as you like it. i was really interested and excited to see it because i studied the play in my shakespeare class last semester and saw it performed at UT, so i wanted to see how the two productions would compare. the stage was outside in the quad at the bodleian library, right down the road from wadham, and it was a pretty small venue, which kept the performance very intimate. it was a good show, but i think i preferred the one i saw in texas.
ridiculously good things have happened this week. i visited jane austen's house. i discovered a giant, beautiful bookstore. and i'm still reading the last two chapters of jane eyre over and over and over again. (it's so good, y'all. so, so good.)
i hope that ridiculously good things have been happening to you this week too! and i love you all a whole lot.
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