The Great House

On 14 June 1814 Jane Austen, who was in Chawton, wrote to her sister Cassandra and included the following snippet of family news:³It appeared so likely to be a wet even

that I went up to the G

Housebetween 3 & 4, & dawdled away an hour very comfortably, tho¶ Edw

wasnot very brisk. The air was clearer in the Even

& he was better.² We allfive walked together into the Kitchen Garden & along the Gosport Road, &they drank tea with us.²³ (1)The ³G

[Great]

House´ referred to in the letter was Chawton House, nowChawton House Library. The Gosport Road was one of two main roads that ranthrough the village. Today the Gosport Road is the lane that leads from thecentre of Chawton, opposite Jane Austen¶s House Museum, and runs past thedrive to Chawton House Library before what is left of the road disappears into afootpath. Jane Austen¶s use of the term ³Great House´ is one that was, and stillis, a form of cultural shorthand that describes a particular type of historic buildingwithin its setting. The term ³Great House´ usually refers to a manor house withina village and it is readily understood, even today, by those who live and work inthe English countryside.

The manor house and church are iconic features of the quintessential Englishvillage. As is the case in the village of Chawton, these two buildings are oftenfound close together. This hints at the importance of one to the other becausewhoever held the manor had the power to decide who would be rector of thechurch. Manor houses and their estates formed the backbone of England as adeveloping nation and over the decades often developed into symbols of continuity in times of local and national threats. Often houses would be built onthe site of an earlier manor. This earlier house might have had connections tothe land going back to William the Conqueror¶s Domesday Book and beyond.The Lord of the Manor collected rents from the tenants but there was always thehope that whoever held the manor would be benevolent in their ³rule´ and proveto be an effective and just landlord.The Chawton Manor estate was inherited by Jane Austen¶s third brother Edward.Edward Austen had the good fortune to fall under the notice of relatives of hisfather¶s, Thomas and Catherine Knight. The Knights had no children of their ownbut they understood the importance of handing on stable and well run estates tothe next generation. Edward inherited the Knight estates of Godmersham,Chawton and Steventon on the death of Thomas Knight in 1794 although it wasnot until 1812 that he changed his family name from ³Austen´ to ³Knight´.There is reliable, written evidence for the Chawton Manor Estate as far back asthe Domesday Book of 1086. Before the current Chawton House was built in the

late 1500s there was a Medieval house on the site. Records in the National Archives indicate that during this period Chawton Manor was of increasingly highstatus as there are recorded visits by the courts of Henry III and Edward I whenthey travelled from Guildford to Winchester. During the 1500s ownership of theestate passed to the Knight family when they bought it outright. Other than that,ownership of Chawton Manor has been decreed by inheritance. Under the rulesof primogeniture the eldest son inherited the estate, or estates, on the death of his father, and in the case of Edward Austen, his benefactor. If there were nochildren to inherit the father¶s property then more distant family members mightfind themselves in line to inherit in an attempt to the keep the estate within thefamily. These lines of inheritance helped to maintain a sense of continuity andstability within local areas. A landowning family, like the Knights, would be awareof the expectation of duty and responsibility to the people who depended on theestate for a living. It is no coincidence in

Pride and Prejudice

that Elizabethbegins to understand the complexities of Darcy¶s character more deeply andclearly when his housekeeper at Pemberley informs her that he is a good andgenerous master. Whilst in

Emma

Mr Knightley is portrayed as the perfectlandowner who is responsive to and aware of the duties and responsibilities thathis position has placed on him.In 1583 John Knight inherited Chawton Manor and almost as soon as heinherited he began to build the House that we see today. The style he wasbuilding in was Elizabethan. Over the next eighty years or so different people