Jane Austen For Dummies (44 page)

Many a country house owner stood for Parliament, which ran the government. Being among the richest and most prominent men in the neighborhood, estate owners usually won. In the best circumstances, the winners, Members of Parliament — MPs — helped the nation and their home regions and counties. In the worst circumstances, the winners helped themselves and their pals.

People in Austen's day were delighted to have friends who were MPs because they could frank their mail. Ordinarily, the recipient of a letter paid the postage on it. But because Members of Parliament had a lot of official correspondence with their constituencies, they could sign their name on the envelope part of a letter, and the recipient wouldn't have to pay postage. This courtesy service was all well and good for the MPs, but the practice was abused, even by Austen, herself, who sought a frank for a letter whenever she could. (For more on letters in Austen's day, see Chapter 6.)

In Austen's fiction, three of her estate owners are either sitting MPs or candidates:
Northanger Abbey
's General Tilney and Sir Thomas Bertram of Mansfield Park are the former, while
Sense and Sensibility
's Mr. Palmer, owner of the Cleveland estate, plans to run for a Parliament seat in the House of Commons. Of course, being an MP meant spending the time that Parliament was in session in London, away from one's estate. So while the master was away to serve in Parliament or for other reasons, his son might step in for him at home, from consulting with the steward to carving the roast at the dinner table, as Edmund does in
Mansfield Park
while his father and elder brother are in Antigua (MP 1:4). This also reminds us of the importance of having a good steward, who would responsibly look after the estate's workings in the absence of his master. While the steward, of course, wouldn't carve the roast while his master was away — the butler did that if no son was available — the steward saw to it that the gamekeeper shot a deer for roast venison.

Traditionally, the village's wealthy estate owner became the local magistrate, overseeing any criminal cases that arose in the area. But the funny thing was that the estate owner didn't have any formal legal training. He just simply learned the law as he went along and used his own sense. While today we might find this upsetting or unjust, the people in Austen's day accepted this long-standing practice. After all, they lived in a hierarchical society and accepted the main estate owner as the BMOC — the Big Man of the Country!

Consider Mr. Knightley, the principal landowner of Highbury: He is the local magistrate in
Emma.
Fortunately, not only does Mr. Knightley have intelligence and integrity, but also he has a brother who's a London lawyer. Thus, whenever John Knightley comes to visit, his brother, George, “had generally some point of law to consult [him] about, or, at least, some curious anecdote to give” (E 1:12).

Dinner was the main meal of the day and was the one meal served in the dining room. When dinner time struck (5:00–6:00 p.m.), the hosts and their guests walked from the drawing room, possibly through other rooms, into the dining room, with the gentlemen escorting the ladies in order of precedence. Titled people went before untitled, and married ladies before single ladies. (For the hierarchy of titles, see Chapter 2.)

Of course, the master of the house presided at the dinner table, because etiquette required it, and still does, especially at formal dinners. After all, who carves the Thanksgiving turkey in most homes? As noted earlier in this chapter, if the master wasn't available for dinner, one of the sons could step in, as Edmund does at Mansfield Park during his father's and brother's absences.

Dinner was a formal meal, for which ladies and gentlemen “dressed.” Not that the gentry walked around like slobs during the day! Far from it! But dinner was the time for the family to be together, and so members of the gentry freshened up and donned their good clothes to dine. (After all, father and the boys were out hunting and riding!) Nowadays, people might “dress” for Thanksgiving dinner; in Austen's day, for the gentry, every dinner was Thanksgiving. For example, when General Tilney's party — his family and Catherine Morland — arrive at Northanger Abbey from Bath, they dress for dinner (NA 2:5). While Austen doesn't specify what they wore, her contemporary readers understood that gentlemen wore white cravats, white shirts and vests (known as waistcoats), coat (their version of a man's suit jacket would be a coat with tails), and black or tan breeches. Having left their riding boots to be cleaned, they wore shiny black shoes. The young ladies changed from their traveling dresses to more formal gowns and shoes and re-did their hair.

Dinner was served in courses. When Mrs. Bennet contemplates inviting Darcy and Bingley to dinner, “though she always kept a very good table, she did not think any thing less than two courses, could be good enough” for them (PP 3:11). A typical meal consisted of soup, roasted meat and/or fowl, fish, and various side dishes. After dinner was eaten, the gentlemen remained in the dining room for cigars, wine, and “men's” talk, while the women recessed to the best drawing room (if the house had more than one) where the gentlemen later joined them for dessert and coffee or tea. When both the ladies and gentlemen were in the drawing room and had finished dessert, the evening's entertainment began.

Playing cards was an extremely popular evening pastime because people could talk while playing. Card games included Whist, Loo, Canasta, Piquet, and Speculation.

Like today, people at all economic levels in Austen's day enjoyed cards — from the servants to the mistress and master of the house. Even children love and loved to play cards. Austen enjoyed playing, and she taught her young nephews how to play Speculation, and they had great fun with the game. Her pleasure in cards carried over to her novels where she showed people at cards. Here are some examples of the various card games her characters play:

Post-dinner entertainment could be something as simple as reading aloud. Gentlemen were expected to read well aloud. As Austen was growing up at Steventon, her father and her brothers, as they became older, would read the latest novels to the family circle during the evening. Hearing good reading may well have sharpened the budding novelist's ear for language. As an excellent reader, Henry Crawford entertains the ladies during an evening at Mansfield Park by reading selections from Shakespeare's
Henry VIII
to them. Moreover, discussing what you read enriches your reading. In
Mansfield Park,
Edmund “made reading useful by talking to [Fanny] of what she read” (MP 1:2).

Of course, many people simply liked to read to themselves.

While others read and play cards, one might quietly write a letter, as Darcy does in
Pride and Prejudice
(1:10). Austen, herself, recalls an evening when after dinner, she and her brother Edward sit together, each writing his or her own letter, awaiting Edward's eldest daughter, Fanny, to join them with her own letter writing.

Jane Austen lived in the great age of conversation. Her favorite moralist from the previous generation, Dr. Samuel Johnson, was widely known and respected for his remarkable conversational abilities. Conversation wasn't just mindless babble. Austen enjoyed intelligent, informed discussion with her family and close friends. During a visit to Godmersham, Austen, her brothers, their wives, and her grown niece Fanny sat in the library to talk, while other guests headed to the billiard room. In her novels, particularly in
Emma,
she connects having information — being a man or woman “of information” — with being sensible (E 1:8, 2:2). While the best conversations between characters in her novels are not about the depths of philosophy or the heights of literature, the conversations are thoughtful — whether talking about human persuadability (PP) or the nature of women's feelings (P).
Persuasion
's intelligent and sensitive heroine Anne Elliot has a conversation with her cousin, Mr. William Elliot, that undoubtedly conveys Austen's feelings on the topic:

Society expected all young ladies to play an instrument well enough to provide evening entertainment. Usually, the instrument was the pianoforte, the predecessor of today's piano, but the harp was also becoming popular in Austen's day. In several of Austen's novels, the young ladies play for after dinner entertainment. The pianists include

The young ladies also sing while accompanying themselves.
Mansfield Park's
Mary Crawford and
Persuasion
's Musgrove sisters also play the harp.

But just because someone played an instrument didn't guarantee a polite audience. When in
Sense and Sensibility,
Marianne plays at Barton Park, some of her listeners talk through her music. Only Colonel Brandon pays her “the compliment of attention” (SS 1:7). While it takes the entire novel and near-fatal illness for Marianne to appreciate him (because he's not lively!), they marry at the end of the book.