Dear Folks,

The classes have started and I find myself not the only man among fourteen but one of two men among twenty-eight. It seems that my Elderhostel group is only part of a larger group. Anyway the other guy is really old as compared to me. I am still in the regular, unmodified category of old.

Our teacher is a charming thirty-something woman who is of the Laura Ashley School of fashion, and shows no sign of tweed at all. The class is too large for much discussion but I have managed to trash Darcy and attack irony. Yesterday we went to Lyme Regis and the women took turns jumping off the cobb into my arms.

Ash, you will be saddened to know that each night they show a movie version of the novels AND NOBODY SEEMS OFFENDED, except that there were a few moans of disgust last night when Capt Wentworth kissed Ann right on the mouth right on the street.

The classes have been fun with all kinds of strange and diverse info on our Lady and her family. You will be heartened to know that there is a great deal of referring to the text. I have a whole host of stuff to pass along but I am very rushed right now so my full report entitled "Creaking Doors and Chamberpots" will have to wait.

As to the flowers, I suggest we try to find a florist in Winchester who can ask the folks at the site what could be done. I’m sure we would find ourselves in a turf war if we just up and sent some flowers. Whatever, something needs to be done. I personally would like to replace that obscenity of a vacuum cleaner.

From the Meister: It's Julie that doesn't like the filmed versions. I love some of them. In fact, I have three long postings on those; here are the links to #1, #2, and #3. By the way, everyone objects to that kiss, but everyone is dead wrong. I am the only person in the world who can tell you the truth--Listen carefully everyone--The Regency is not the Victorian. Anne and Wentworth not only kissed - on the mouth - but they held one another for a good fifteen minutes, talking about what they had almost lost forever, and holding on for dear life. Passersby were charmed. Why can't I convince people of these things. Which reminds me, you and I need to have a long conversation about Darcy when you get back!

To Everyone,

My holidays prevented me from answering Julie’s question about toves earlier.  Unfortunately, though the brillig was certainly moist enough, it was a very cold rather than humid moisture, and we have fewer toves, slithy or otherwise at this time than we had last season.  However, the Bandersnatches are looking particularly frumious this year, and I daresay we will be overrun with them by the time the mome raths have completely outgrabed.

Meanwhile, the cherries in the Okanagan are deep red and juicy.  I spent a week among the trees spitting out pips.  I’m sorry Ray’s great expectations have been met with less success than mine, but what the Dickens can we do? Perhaps, if he really falls on hard times, Ray could visit an old curiosity shop.  That might provide him with the sense of time travelling that we all so desperately wish he was experiencing.  I imagine when one is steeped in literature as some of us are (indeed, some unfortunates cannot put a sentence together without reference to some book or other), the reality that England has actually kept apace of the rest of the world in terms of vacuum cleaners, truck routes, and plastic flowers, amounts to a sort of culture shock. I trust that once he gets accustomed to the drastic changes to Austen’s world, the rest of Ray’s trip will not be so bleak.  How's everyone else doing?

From the Meister: I love the smell of Bandersnatch in the morning!

Dear Sir,

Our ABC is currently showing reruns of 'Pride and Prejudice', and, having watched one or two episodes QUITE through, I must own myself disgusted.  The costumes, the houses, the servants - all immaculately presented, I acknowledge, but that prissy little Elizabeth Bennet, with her reserved half-smile under her bonnet, annoyed the ... well, she missed the point, in my opinion.  It seemed to me that the only way that Elizabeth's liveliness and intelligence were allowed to express themselves, were in her being directed, occasionally, to run fast enough cross country to allow her ankles to be shown.  I haven't got to see Darcy swim, yet, though I've heard it happens.  Whacko.

The series is beautiful and accurate, as far as I can judge, in its portrayal of clothing, manners, and houses - but Elizabeth Bennet does not reside there.

Didn't go much on the Pemberley housekeeper, either.

From the Meister: First you relate some inappropriate suggestions for Marianne Dashwood and now you want to pretend that Jennifer Ehle is not perfect in every way. Have you no sense of proportion? Who is next? Stevie Nicks? Ummm - ankles you say?

To Everyone,

I recently finished reading the version of Sanditon that was finished by a mystery author in the late '70's and just wanted to share my disappointment in the way it was finished.  Whoever wrote it could not have been much of a Jane Austen scholar because it is certainly not the way she herself would have written it.  Of course, it could just be that I am prejudiced because of my opinion that no one could possibly duplicate the writing of Jane Austen. I was warned not to read it by some of you beforehand, but I went ahead and did it anyway because of my curiosity.  The part actually written by Austen was pretty good and I would have liked to read it had she been able to finish the novel herself.  I have to wonder though how much of it would have survived intact, knowing our lady's fondness for editing and rewriting.  Have any of you read the book?  If so, what did you think of it?

To Everyone,

I share your prejudice but not your tolerance. I have read Jane Austen's Sanditon but no other version. I think your post to be dead-on correct on every point. I especially liked your judgment that with our Lady's habits, the manuscript would have been greatly modified. I believe that, because the logic of her novels is so tight, Jane Austen must have made the beginnings consistent after she invented the endings. Also, Jane Austen's way of building drama and anticipation required a detailed understanding of what was to come. I would guess that could only be achieved after many rewrites. To me, Sanditon - the real Sanditon - is very interesting because it comes from Jane Austen's hand and because the characters seem so potentially interesting. However, the story rambles and seems to lack plot. Again, I suspect the same might have been true of all of our Lady's first drafts.

The sad part is that Jane Austen was inventing a health resort at a time when she sinking to her own end and no one knew why.

It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so maybe I should applaud these "completions" of unfinished, Jane-Austen manuscripts. Flattery is one thing, but what good is to said for exploitation?

By the way, read anything you wish, your judgment is at least as good as anyone else's.

Dear Folks,

It is my sad duty to report that Jane Austen is not to be found either at Chawton or Steventon. I am now at the library in Winchester and will visit the site of the burial this afternoon. The women in tweed were there but they had all changed into seersucker for the summer. I will, of course, have a full report at a later time, but for now just know that I am here and that I am fighting the good fight. It's still two days before I get to meet the select eleven.

More from Exeter if I can find a friendly library.

Dear Folks,

I am now in Exeter having done the grave site yesterday in Winchester. Ash, be glad you were not with me. In order to get a clear view of the slab I had to move a vacuum cleaner aside. As if that was not bad enough, the vacuum was one of those cute canister type that was painted up so that the top looked like a derby hat. There were two eyes painted on the canister, which made the hose look like an elephant’s trunk. Listen, I am sorry to have to report such sacrilege, but there it was.

In general, I am pissed (not in the English sense of being drunk but in the American sense of being very mad). So far I have not been pleased with what they did with Chawton (put photo copies of stuff all over the walls, removed the beds, turned what could have been a perfectly good Jane Austen experience into a mess). Chawton cried out for a woman dressed as our Lady who could charm the visitor. Also the walk that Jane Austen took from Chawton to Alton is now a truck route and it is worth your life to walk the first half of the walk. The church at Steventon did not draw me any closer to finding Jane Austen, which is, after all, the reason I came.

Something tells me that she is, as I said yesterday, not to be found here. I know it sounds hooky, and thus goes against my grain to say it, but if one seeks Jane Austen, one need look no further than her books.

There are, of course, other things that occured to me when I got to Chawton. Things like why did our Lady, her sister and her mother get put in that strange house located right on the road on that busy corner when there was that perfectly good grand house also owned by her brother? Basically I have a strong urge to go back in time and take a 2x4 among the family and get this whole thing cleared up. Then, in the current time I would like to take the same 2x4 to both Chawton and Winchester. That vacuum cleaner would be the first thing to go.

While you wait with baited breath (whatever the hell that means), think about this: does not our Lady deserve better at her gravesite than a bunch of tacky fake flowers? I say we need to get behind a campaign to put fresh flowers there.

Tomorrow I meet the lucky eleven who must vie for my services.

Dear Ray,

Are you sure the church at Steventon is the same one?  The church of which Jane Austen's father was vicar was built in the thirteenth century, and I thought it had been demolished, along with the parsonage, long ago.  Apparently, though, there is a pump 'enclosed by an ugly iron railing', which marks the remains of Steventon parsonage.  I have before me a photograph of Godmersham Church, which belonged to Edward Knight, and is Norman - it looks attractive from the photo, but of course there might be a bloody great car park just out of view.  I also have here two colour photos of Chawtown cottage, one from the front, which is bang on the street, complete with what looks like a sandwich board sign on the footpath, and one taken from the 'garden front', which looks very much prettier.  Then I also have a photo of Chawton House, which looks to be two or three storied, and is covered in ivy.  At a guess, it would have taken a great many more servants to keep up - and I do think I remember reading that Edward's family lived there on and off?

'Baited' breath refers to the 'baiting' of horses, when they were rested on a journey - and people anxiously waited.

Now, what is all this about a pond?
Julie

From the Meister: Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was born, in America, the year that Jane Austen died. He was both a political and a naturalist philosopher still much admired in this country. Among other things he wrote Civil Disobedience and Walden, or Life in the Woods. The latter work described the two years he spent on Walden pond, by himself, in the Massachusetts wilderness where he expended only a few dollars and much intellectual energy. You may not have heard of him but it is doubtful that you have not heard bits of his philosophy. I know enough about him to say, with confidence, that, unlike some I know, he would not have even imagined throwing Marianne Dashwood into Walden.

Dear Ray,

Actually, I would have needed your company at Winchester - your company and your restraint. I am not a calm person. Is it possible to wire flowers to the gravesite? If so, I will do that while you are in England. To what address do I mail the 2x4?

This reminds me of the time that I took my wife to Walden Pond. That was in the late sixties. The pond was surrounded by a chain-link fence and bordered by a highway on one side and a trailer park on another.

Dear Ray,

"But it is fortunate," thought she, "that I have something to wish for.  Were the whole arrangement complete, my disappointment would be certain."

So mused Elizabeth Bennet a couple of hundred years ago.  Another instance of how true our Lady was in her predictions. My husband and I visited Lincoln's tomb 4 years ago.  Probably everyone's (except our charming foreigners) has been there, but if not, know that it's in the middle of a working cemetery.  150 yards from the parking lot a funeral was just breaking up, with some mourners still standing by the grave talking. Also there were other people visiting graves nearby. Cars, minivans and tour buses were discharging tourists by the dozens -- boy scouts, families with kids, an elderhostel tour.  And I can say with certainty that no one besides ourselves seemed to understand that this wasn't a trip to Busch Gardens or the mall. Shouting, laughing, picnicing, playing frisbee on the graves, you name it, we saw it and not just from the young kids. Someday, I'll win the lottery and endow two Marine guards with billy clubs and loaded rifles to ensure that real visitors can contemplate the life of a great man in peace (except for the occasional sound of muffled clubs on kidneys.)

Thank you Julie for the explanation of "took silk."  The degrees of lawyerhood remain a mystery to this American.  But surely it's 'bated (abated) breath not baited breath, isn't it? An artifice of poetry that's come into general usage.  Although it knocks out a nice turn of phrase someone came up with: he was always waiting with "a worm on my tongue."
Cheryl

Dear Cheryl,

You're probably quite right about the bating/baiting.  I'm right up on baiting of horses at the moment, as I'm reading The Diary of A Village Shopkeeper, in which baiting is much in evidence, and I took the liberty of making the connection myself.  I could imagine everybody waiting around impatiently while the ritual was gone through - I just hope they had to wait long enough to actually refresh the poor horses!

There is no mystery to lawyerdom - it all comes down to money.  A QC can charge more than an unsilked barrister, basically.  It's a step up the ladder.  I think that, technically, a barrister is invited to take silk, or is nominated by somebody - I don't think they can just apply or send in a requisition form, or whatever.

I don't visit many cemeteries, but I don't think we would see much frisbee-throwing in Australia.  I'm trying to think of some famous graves in this country, and I'm having a pretty thin time of it!  Nobody famous enough for a tourist bus, I shouldn't think.  We have war memorials and that kind of thing, and they are treated with appropriate decorum, usually.

Personally, I think the only place to look for Jane Austen is in her writings, where her mind and her voice are still alive and vibrant.  I don't imagine she would be hanging around either at Winchester or Chawton - she was a countrywoman, and her English countryside vanished long ago. I like this quote from Nigel Nicolson's 'The World of Jane Austen':'She never went abroad, never to Scotland or Ireland not (as far as we know) to Wales, but in England she knew well every southern county from Kent to Devon ...., as far north as Staffordshire, and lived .... in London, Bath and Southampton.  She never saw a major lake or moor, an industrial town, a mountain or a mine, and the English countryside must have appeared to her unvaryingly gentle and attractive.'

All of that is gone now, at least as Jane Austen knew it, but her England is living still in her writings.  I wonder how things would have been had she lived longer, or if the railway had been invented sooner?  Because it does seem that she enjoyed travelling.
Julie

Dear Julie,

Of course baiting horses makes me think of baiting bears. It's one of those pastimes that remind us just how starved our ancestors were for entertainment.  Just kind of horrifying and pointless at the same time. I think the American stage coach had the better idea: change the horses entirely.  In Roughing It Mark Twain says it could be done in less than three minutes by the watch.  Of course the stage line owned all the horses as well as the coaches so that wouldn't work too well in the UK.

The mystery for an American is that the lawyer has to get some sort of permission to charge extra.  American lawyers specialize of course, but they don't have to get any sort of permission to do it.  I'm not sure there's even a special bar exam for the various specialties -- one size fits all I guess.

I'm sure you're right that JA is best found in her writing.  But, as the enchanter Dallben says in The Book of Three:  "In some cases we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself."   And after all, what better excuse is there for a trip to the UK?

Dear Cheryl,

On the question of QCs having permission to be paid more.  I think you may have misunderstood Julie, whom I suspect of being a bit facetious when she said that a QC after the name allows a lawyer to charge more.  It’s the same with any initials after a name a PhD or an MD give a person more credibility and with that comes tacit permission to charge more.  A QC is a step up the ladder from a prestige point of view, but there are "unsilked" lawyers in this very firm who get paid more than some of the QCs.  That has to do with area of specialization and how long they’ve worked with our firm, I believe.

My boss, whom we lovingly refer to in our corner of the office as "The Silk" has just informed me that the term is in reference to the material that his robe is made of, just as Julie suspected.  The yoke on his robe is also shaped differently to distinguish him in court.  We do not wear the periwig in Canadian courts. According to The Silk, a "QC" is just a "big scam so that you have to throw away your good woollen or polyester robe and spend even more money on another one."  He also said that I’m supposed to bow my head in reverence as he passes by, but I’m not falling for that one. The Silk has an odd fondness for bulldog clips - the kind that hold thick stacks of paper together - and he possesses a drawer full which he will by no means lend out or recycle.  I do not know if that constitutes some sort of fetish.  I’ll leave it to you people, with your discussions of privities and private connections, to decide. I dare not ask whether he wears garters under his robe for fear of the answer.  I once worked for a man who told me that "nothing is worn under the robe - it’s all in perfect working order."

Dear Everyone,

To All,
Happy Moon-Landing Day a day late.  I hope everyone celebrated well and honored not just the brave men who went into space but the scientists and engineers whose work over the years has made our speed-of-light communications about Jane Austen possible and affordable.  Not a bad investment at fifty cents per American, eh?

Dear Heather,
I was the one trying to be facetious but obviously not succeeding.  You can't stop an American from lawyer bashing -- you might as well suggest we skip the fireworks on the Fourth of July..

Do you mean my Okanogan when you say "the Okanogan" or do the cherries extend up into Canada? Maybe we passed each other last week some time when I was out driving around with my husband while he scouted for hunting sights.  We found the mother lode of black raspberries on Sunday, but I ain't sayin' where.

Julie,
I don't think it's entirely fair to blame the actress because the director and/or writers were idiots or maybe just lazy.  The bit about having Elizabeth run at any excuse and play with Mr. Darcy's dogs indicates a lack of imagination on someone's part.  The literary Elizabeth is a perfect representation of a bright young woman of 20, but I guess the only way to show modern audiences that she's a "regular gal" is to make her a tom-boy.  Still that is just an annoying trifle.  Having Mr. Darcy appear in dishabille is a positive perversion of the novel.   Which is not to say I don't enjoy half-naked hunky young men as much as the next woman, just that there's a time and a place for it.  (Speaking of perverse, the thought of Brandon Fraser as Mr. Darcy in a modern "Carry On" movie just ran through my mind.)

To the Meister,
Stevie Nicks?  Oh, dear.  We really must work on your musical tastes.

From the Meister: Aaah, ummm - Sheryl Crow! Right?

Dear Cheryl,

Now you've done it.  I've got books flying all over the place as I try to find how the English coaching system worked.  There certainly were public coaches - in 1830 there were 54 passenger coaches per day travelling each way between Manchester and London, and my reference states 'All in all, the number of stage coach services provided in major urban centres multiplied eight-fold between 1970 and 1836, when 700 mail coaches and 3,300 stage coaches were in regular operation. Mail coaches also carried people.'

One inn, The Swan with Two Necks, London, owned sixty-eight coaches and 1800 horses in 1838! The baiting I was reading about was that of privately-owned animals, whose owners were travelling by horseback.  I suppose privately-owned coaches could change horses if necessary - i.e. leave the owner's team at the inn and hire replacements?  Would have been a lot of mucking around, though.  Remember Catherine Moreland being irritated by the slowness of the journey to Northanger, occasioned by the time needed at the inns to accommodate the General's four coach horses?  I remember also that The Crown Inn, Highbury, kept carriage horses, but 'more for the conveneience of the neighbourhood than from any run on the road.'  Horses used to be kept at steep and difficult parts of the country, and were added on to the existing team to give extra pull - the passengers, meanwhile, getting out and walking, a la Mrs Norris.

I was joking about QCs and their fees - they certainly seem to charge more - I think, in fact, they can pretty well charge what they like.  Until very recently in Australia, the only way to find out what a lawyer charged was to use the thing, and find out.  The Law Society does publish scales of fees now, though.  As for what they wear underneath, all I can ever think of in this case is Monty Python's Judges' sketch, from 'Live at the Hollywood Bowl.'  I can also sing the Philosophers' Song.  Gad, how clever!

Beware the Jabberwok, Heather, and you ought to be shunning that bandersnatch.
Julie

Dear Ray,

I hope you enjoy your trip and survive the food. If you run into any revisionist-feminists I can only advise you to practice the "random act of kindness" philosophy.  You'll make her/his day. Drink some real pub beer for me and don't forget a highlighter and a map so we can A: trace your route and B: have a  guide to where all the Brits you meet are from.
Cheryl

Dear Ashton,

Remember that when Wickham asks for the preferment a second time he tell Mr. Darcy that his circumstances were very bad and that he became increasing abusive as his circumstances worsened. £3,000 is a lot of money -- the formula I use is slightly more conservative than yours but I come up with about $750,000.  I can see Wickham going through that in a few years.  Hell, I can see myself going through that in a few years, and I don't even gamble.

[Aside:  in Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers Peter Wimsey's nephew has to apply to him for money to pay off his debts from his current term at Oxford.  No actual amount is given but it's certainly several hundred pounds.]

Do you think the inflation was due to the wasting effects of the wars, or because the UK no longer had America to subsidize costs?  They had to wait a few years before the other colonies started paying well on the average citizen level.   Would the industrial revolution have been delayed if the American Colonies had been retained?

I don't believe that the Navy worked the same way as the Army, which is why gentlemen's sons didn't join up.  One started as a cabin boy -- unpaid of course, and subjected to several different types of abuse.   I would guess that men like Captain Wentworth with an Admiral for a brother in law might have had it a bit easier.  I'll just have to dig into The History of The British Navy for some answers.

One question I've been unable to answer is what the heck does "took silk" mean?  A minister of state for war is mentioned as having been called to the bar in such and such a year and then "took silk" a few years later.  Became a judge? Barrister? Gay? What?

From 19th century Great Britain to 20th century US.  I've just started Working on the Bomb, An Oral History of WWII Hanford.  Excerpts of interviews with everyone from the farmers who lost their land to engineers and physicists to carpenters.  This is a home subject at my house, my father in law having been part of the construction crew (he retired from Hanford in the 70's) and my father having been one of those Marines whose life was conceivably saved by the use of the atomic bombs.  We'll see if it's as good as Picturing The Bomb by Enrico Fermi's daughter who gathered up family photos from people who worked at Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and Hanford.

P.S. to Ray Mitchell:  I just read Black Ajax GM Fraser's new novel.  I'd be interested to hear what you thought of it.
Cheryl

Dear Cheryl,

When a barrister 'takes silk', he/she becomes a Queen's Counsel, which is a more expensive kind of barrister.  They get to put 'QC' after their names, and, I suppose, wear silk gowns in court, instead of the usual black cloth.  I think they may get to wear a different kind of wig, also.  But I know they get to charge a lot more money for their services.  As for their sexual inclinations, there I am unable to comment, but for all I know, there may be garter belts and stockings under said silk.  I've never looked.
Julie

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