On seeing this image on Facebook today I spent some time puzzling upon it, and would like to spend more, but on first impression enjoyed its overt irony. No better illustration for providing the link to the ‘old’ blog for … Continue reading →

An exhibition based on Dr. Laura Engel’s fascinating insight into eighteenth-century culture illustrated by the collections at Chawton House Library.   Austen is famously associated with Elizabeth Inchbald because of the ill-fated production of Lovers’ Vows (1798) in Mansfield Park … Continue reading →

Country House Living: Wives, servants and household management In the long eighteenth century, life in a country house such as Chawton House had a routine dictated by the agricultural year, and by the social demands of sports such as hunting. … Continue reading →