In the Garden with Jane Austen

Our young Piony (peony) at the foot of the Fir tree has just blown and looks very handsome; & the whole of the Shrubbery border will soon be very gay with Pinks & Sweet Williams, in addition to the Columbines already in bloom.”

What a picture of spring perfection famed novelist Jane Austen paints in this 1811 letter to her sister, Cassandra. And it’s a picture that can still be seen at Chawton Cottage: Austen’s home and now a museum. The gardens there have been restored using antique varieties of plants that Austen knew and grew. You can see them in person if you chance to visit.

Now armchair travelers can visit Austen’s garden as well. It’s one of many captured in Kim Wilson’s book, “In the Garden with Jane Austen.” The colorful paperback volume will appeal to those who know Austen’s novels as well as those who’ve fallen under the spell of the various movie adaptations. But it will utterly charm those — like Wilson and me — who love both Austen and gardens.

The book, in fact, is the tangible result of Wilson’s confusion as a gardener when reading some of Austen’s natural descriptions in the novels. Exactly what was a “shrubbery,” the location where Mr. Knightley proposes to Emma in “Emma,” she wondered. Or “the prettyish kind of a little wilderness” that Lady Catherine de Bourgh suggests as a spot for a chat with Elizabeth Bennet? How could one have a “wilderness on one side” of the lawn, pondered Wilson, thinking like an American of Yosemite.

 

The walled kitchen garden at Chawton House, the estate of Jane Austen's brother, can be seen through these elaborate gates. Used with permission from Jones Books. 

“If I was curious,” Wilson said in a recent phone conversation with me, “other readers must be, too.”  Thus the book examines garden flowers, features and philosophies of Austen’s era — like those confusing shrubberies, an early 19^th century term meaning a collection of trees and shrubs usually arranged as a winding walk. It was typically laid out with quick-draining gravel paths which made it accessible in most weather, offering a chance for exercise as well as a rare chance for a private conversation. 

Wilson looks at gardens Austen would have known and visited — some of which still exist like her brother’s estate, Chawton House, and her cousin’s, Stoneleigh Abbey; or the nearby home of famed naturalist Gilbert White in Selborne. 

The book also offers social history, quotes from Austen’s books and characters, charming 19^th century engravings, references from garden literature of the period, and even recipes. There’s garden history and information on landscape design giants of the era: William Kent, “Capability” Brown, and Henry Repton.

While Wilson visited the gardens she writes about and interviewed gardeners working at them, she also turned to historic books for information. “If you don’t want a first edition,” many useful books are available at reasonable prices on E-bay, Wilson emphasized. She bought things that “are dirty and water-stained;” books that clearly were “used like we would use them — out in the garden.”

Stoneleigh Abbey (above) belonged to a cousin of Jane Austen's mother and Jane is known to have visited the house and garden with its elegant conservatory. Used with permission from Jones Books.

A NEW LOOK AT AUSTEN: What’s most surprising about Wilson’s book is that it offers readers a way to see Austen in a whole new light; a feat not easily accomplished in this era of Austen mania. Austen uses references to landscape to convey important messages about character and characters, Wilson says, using Mr. Darcy of “Pride and Prejudice” as an example.

 “Austen was telling us how good Darcy’s taste was” in her description of his estate, Pemberly: “(Lizzie) had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste.” Though he may not have been a hands-on gardener, Darcy would have been the prime influence on his estate’s landscape, Wilson emphasizes. The statement is about the man as much as his property.

I’ve read all of Austen and seen all the productions, but until I saw all these references and quotations compiled in one place, I didn’t consciously realize how much the landscape — whether parks, estates or cottage gardens — figured in Austen’s work. As a serious gardener, I’m prepared to reread her oeuvre with an eye focused on nature and not on characters. I think anyone who looks at Wilson’s book will want to do the same. 

The remains of this greenhouse can be seen at Chawton House, the home of Jane Austen's brother. Used with permission from Jones Books.

YOUR AUSTEN GARDEN: For those who want their own Austen garden, Wilson includes information on the restoration of the garden at Chawton Cottage complete with plant lists and planting plans as well as similar information and designs for a number of other types of gardens of the era.

TOUR AUSTEN GARDENS: Wilson’s book wisely includes information not only on touring Austen gardens but also the gardens of the great estates featured in the film adaptations and the 2007/08 Public Television versions of the novels. And yes, locations used in both the Keira Knightley and Colin Firth versions of “Pride and Prejudice” are covered. Wilson also includes an extensive bibliography for Austen addicts and scholars.

MADISON MEMO: Author Kim Wilson will talk about her new book, "In the Garden with Jane Austen," and sign copies at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 22 at Borders at 3750 University Ave.

A version of this review appeared under my column byline, Artful Living, in The Capital Times on Oct. 16, 2008.

Comments

[Nicola]

Ooh, I want that book. I have visited Chawton but the torrential rain that day and the fact that I was accompanied by two bored children and a husband who wanted to watch a football match prevented me from taking a good look around the garden! Lovely post.

[LINDA FROM EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Nicola — I think you would really enjoy it. I shelved it with my Austen novels rather than my garden books because it is really about looking at Jane in a new way. As well as being able to glimpse the real places that she lived and visited.

I'm lucky because the publisher is located here in my hometown and the author lives in a nearby city. I heard about the book just before it was released so my timing to get a copy and review it was spot on.

Have you heard of "Searching for Jane Austen"? It's by Emily Auerbach, a prof at the University here, who looks at Jane and how the movies, her family etc. all project different images as do the various novels. She attempts to determine who is the real Jane Austen. More academic but not in a bad way.

[joco]

Hiya Linda,

Had been looking for a blog called 'Each little Word' (you being a writer).
We have it all on our doorstep and don't bother to go there. Typical.

Her unfinished novel is the one that stays clearest in my mind. That Dorking street is so clear, that I never want to go see it in reality. And the gormless posh chap telling the girl she needs proper boots. :-)
I hope they never bother to film it, as I find my own versions blurred by these endless tv productions.

I worked my way through most of her letters, and was surprised that she had such a high social time. Not at all the way she is portrayed usually. All those balls and gatherings are from experience rather than wishful thinking.

BTW, who was the chap saying that readers write the books they read in their head - deconstruction?

[LINDA FROM EACH LITTLE WORLD]

Hello again!

I know what you mean about having things available to us that we never take advantage of as well as having our own visions and versions of books in our minds. I was horrified when they cast Edith Wharton's "Age of Innocence" and the two female leads looked completely opposite to Wharton's descriptions.

I heard the author of the Austen book speak the other night and she also mentioned the letters and what a different impression one gets reading Jane's own words vs. how family tried to portray her.

I read Sanditon and The Watsons years ago and remember really liking them. Maybe I will have to pull them off the shelf again.