Category: Architecture

Ep98: The Thing About Northanger Abbey's Bell System

10/25/2024

THE CALL IS COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE. And the person calling is General Tilney. For this year's spooky season episode, we're talking about the bell system at Northanger Abbey.
If you have ever wondered for whom the bell pulls, this episode is for you.

Selected sources

“Amalgamated Society of Whitesmiths, Domestic Engineers and General Pipe Fitters and Predecessors.” Accessed October 5, 2024. https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/AMW.
Cassell. Cassell’s Household Guide: Being a Complete Encyclopaedia of Domestic and Social Economy and Forming a Guide to Every Department of Practical Life. Vol. 1. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1869. http://archive.org/details/cassellshousehol01londuoft.
Dredge, Sarah. “‘Was There a Servant . . . Who Did Not Know the Whole Story before the End of the Day?’ Upside-Down Points of View in Austen.” Persuasions On-Line 40, no. 2 (2020). https://jasna.org/publications-2/persuasions-online/volume-40-no-2/dredge/.
Girouard, Mark. Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1994.
Knight, John I. Mechanics Magazine. Knight, 1825.
Loudon, J. C. An Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture and Furniture. London: Longman, 1833.
Palmer, Marilyn, and Ian West. “Communications: Bells and Telephones.” In Technology in the Country House, 131–49. Swindon: Historic England, 2016.
Sambrook, Pamela A. The Country House Servant. The History Press, 2002.
Stone, Lawrence, and Jeanne C. Fawtier Stone. An Open Elite?: England, 1540-1880. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984. http://archive.org/details/openeliteengland00ston.

EP80: The Thing About the Pump-Room

11/30/2023

There's nothing like a refreshing drink of mineral water under the watchful gaze of Beau Nash to get your day off to the right start. This episode we're headed to the pump-room in Bath to partake of the finest water on offer. And we promise that we actually do wash our glasses. Please exit on the left, and don't forget to tip your pumper.

Also, we have merch! Check out www.redbubble.com/people/aboutausten/shop to see the current offerings.

Selected Source

Eighteenth-Century Political Participation & Electoral Culture. “Bath: Constituency (Borough).” ECPPEC. Accessed November 18, 2023. ecppec.ncl.ac.uk/case-study-constituencies/bath/.
Haddon, John. Bath. London: Batsford, 1973.
Historic England. “Grand Pump Room, Non Civil Parish - 1394019.” Accessed November 18, 2023. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1394019.
Lane, Maggie. A Charming Place: Bath in the Life and Times of Jane Austen. Bath: Millstream Books, 1988.
———. Jane Austen’s England. London: Hale, 1996.
Lynch, Deidre. “Notes.” In Persuasion, by Jane Austen, edited by James Kinsley. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Murray, Venetia. An Elegant Madness: High Society in Regency England. New York: Penguin, 2000.
Nicolson, Nigel. The World of Jane Austen. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1991.
Savage, J. The Original Bath Guide, Considerably Enlarged and Improved, Comprehending Every Species of Information That Can Be Required by the Visitor and Inhabitant, Etc. J. Savage; Meyler & Son, 1811.
The Historic & Local New Bath Guide: Forming a Complete Pocket History of Bath (with a Map). J. Browne, 1802.
The Improved Bath Guide; Or, Picture of Bath and Its Environs. Wood & Cunningham, 1809.
Thicknesse, Philip. The Valetudinarians Bath Guide: Or, the Means of Obtaining Long Life and Health. 2nd ed. London: Dodsley, Brown, Pratt, and Clinch, 1780.

Ep57: The Thing About Mrs. Reynolds' House Tours

12/23/2022

We're headed back to Pemberley for this episode, where a gracious Mrs. Reynolds is ready to welcome us. We cover the history of country house tours and the role that someone like Mrs. Reynolds would play in facilitating such visits. If you have ever awkwardly run into your almost future fiancé at their house, this episode is for you.

Selected Sources:

Aslet, Clive. The Story of the Country House: A History of Places and People. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021.
Girouard, Mark. Life in the English Country House: A Social and Architectural History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978.
Lupton, Christina. “Notes.” In Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, edited by James Kinsley. Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
MacArthur, Rosie. “Gentlemen Tourists in the Early Eighteenth Century: The Travels of William Hanbury and John Scattergood.” In Travel and the British Country House: Cultures, Critiques and Consumption in the Long Eighteenth Century, edited by Jon Stobart. Manchester (GB): Manchester University Press, 2017.
Rothery, Mark. “Country House Visiting: Past, Present, and Future.” OUPblog, October 1, 2016. https://blog.oup.com/2016/10/country-house-visiting-jane-austen/.
Stobart, Jon. Travel and the British Country House: Cultures, Critiques and Consumption in the Long Eighteenth Century. Manchester (GB): Manchester University Press, 2017.

Ep42: The Thing About Lady Catherine's Chimney-piece

6/23/2022

Mr. Collins is here, and he is ready to enumerate the many fine qualities of all the furnishings at Rosings Park. No really, sit down. This could take awhile. This episode we're all about Lady Catherine's very fancy chimney-piece. If you have ever been given a dubious compliment involving a small summer breakfast parlour, this episode is for you.

Selected Sources:

Baker, Malcolm. “Public Images for Private Spaces? The Place of Sculpture in the Georgian Domestic Interior.” Journal of Design History 20, no. 4 (January 1, 2007): 309–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epm030.
Burton, Neil, and Lucy Porten. Georgian Chimneypieces. London: The Georgian Group, 2000.
Chambers, Sir William. “Of Chimney Pieces.” In A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture, 4th ed., vol. 2: 377–83. London: Priestley and Weale, 1825. https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Treatise_on_the_Decorative_Part_of_Civ/WJ4aAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0.
Gunnis, Rupert. Dictionary of British Sculptors: 1660-1851. London: Abbey Library, 1957.
“John Nost II (d. 1729) - Chimneypiece.” Accessed June 14, 2022. https://www.rct.uk/collection/1080/chimneypiece-0.
Laing, Alastair. “The Eighteenth-Century English Chimneypiece.” Studies in the History of Art 25 (1989): 241–54.
Pevsner, Nikolaus. “The Architectural Setting of Jane Austen’s Novels.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 31, no. 1 (January 1, 1968): 404–22. https://doi.org/10.2307/750649.

EP28: The Thing About Blaize Castle

2/18/2022

Wave goodbye to Henry and Eleanor Tilney because this week we're headed to Blaize [Blaise] Castle. Except not really, because John Thorpe is a big liar.

If you have ever gone on an ill-advised outing, this episode is for you.

Selected Sources

Alexander, Christine. “The Prospect of Blaise: Landscape and Perception in Northanger Abbey.” Persuasions 21 (1999): 17–31. https://jasna.org/assets/Persuasions/No-21/1e6d94a95c/alexander.pdf
“Blaise Castle - Bristol.” Parks & Gardens. Accessed February 11, 2022. https://www.parksandgardens.org/places/blaise-castle.
“Blaise Castle House Museum.” Bristol Museums. Accessed February 11, 2022. https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/blaise-castle-house-museum/.
“Blaise Castle.” Historic England. Accessed February 11, 2022. https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1208115.
Lane, Maggie. “Blaise Castle.” Persuasions 7 (1985): 78–81. https://www.jasna.org/persuasions/printed/number7/lane.html
Wenner, Barbara Britton. Prospect and Refuge in the Landscape of Jane Austen. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006.

Episodes

Ep98: The Thing About Northanger Abbey's Bell System

EP80: The Thing About the Pump-Room

Ep57: The Thing About Mrs. Reynolds' House Tours

Ep42: The Thing About Lady Catherine's Chimney-piece

EP28: The Thing About Blaize Castle

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