Tiny Clues

In the copy of JA's letters I bought on Saturday, JA wrote that her niece was enthralled with another niece's spinning wheel. This is a clue that spinning may have been going on in the Austen's sphere (I really did not think they would have been spinners), or the wheel may have been a decorative piece. It is the sort of mention I'll try to connect with other data sources . 

Speaking of other sources, a second clue that really got me somewhere today was the mention at the AGM of the Basingstoke provisioner's records from the Austen era that are held on the Hampshire County Records Office. The exact title is the 'Customer Accounts Ledger for furniture and furnishings supplied by John Ring, auctioneer/furnisher of Basingstoke, Oct 1792-1796 with later entries to 1800'. With the help of  Morwenna, library assistant, I looked at the online database of the HCRO and found all sorts of documents I want to review. I highly recommend anyone interested in the history of Hampshire and the families who lived here, including the Austens and the Knights, to have a look at this site. The titles alone are intriguing. I know that one day I want to make a trip here to study the 30 odd years of Mary Lloyd's diaries. Mary was a friend of Jane, Cassandra, and their mother; her sister (Martha) shared a house with J, C and Mrs. A. Mary later married JA's brother. I am hoping her diaries will tell me about the time of JA's final illness, and also provide insights into household sewing/linens. And since I now know my way on the bus to Winchester, I'll plan a trip there one day next week after I have made my through the 3 bins of books I have yet to get through in the library. One gets a Research Network Ticket upon showing ID which, I am told, is good for accessing documents in any County Records Office in the country. How great is that? I hope this connection helps someone else in their sleuthing for information.

First thing this morning, I embarked on making notes from an 1830 book of surgery to try to figure out what on earth beliefs were at the time about how the human body functions. It is so far from what I learned about human physiology in my training and through my work as a dietitian, it was very difficult to sort out. Thanks once again to JA's book of letters, a tiny footnote lead me to a series of books on the history of medicine (.e.g., Tom Foster, Blood and Guts, 2004) so I can follow up with those references once I get back to Canada. I am finding that the dietary advice connected to beliefs that all sorts of ills could be treated through bleeding and inducing purges and vomiting appears to be a jumble of recipes but that they directly connect to their beliefs about how the body worked and how various foods fed or dried up the humours, depending on what was desired. I find that if I suspend my knowledge of human digestion, I can imagine why people thought the remedies they had might work. I am excited to share these ideas with others in the coming months/years. 

In other news, two baby sparrow hawks fledged from their nest on the side of the Stable Block (the house that we live in) last week. Tonight, while the St. Nicholas bell ringers were practicing, one of the babies decided to hang out in the eaves. Katherine, the JASNA International Fellow, and I were present on Friday when this little being took his first flight. So special! I enjoyed watching the two babies play and romp through the skies as I was eating lunch in the back garden today...how quickly they went from not flying to playing in mid air!

Another lovely find today was of this image of a draper's shop from the Victorian era. It hangs in the hallway of the Stable Block; I'd walked by it a number of times without realizing what it was. On closer inspection, it shows a  poor sewer or weaver trying to sell her work to a shop while a more well to do/better dressed woman beside her is shopping. The title is Ruinous Prices. 'Twas ever so for textile artists/workers.

Thanks all for reading and for your kind notes.