I’m reading:<\/p>\n
Jane Austen’s England<\/em> by Roy and Lesley Adkins.<\/p>\n Jane Austen; A Life<\/em> by Claire Tomalin<\/p>\n Jane Austen’s Letters<\/em>.\u00a0 Colledted and Edited by Deirdre Le Faye<\/p>\n
Blogging the research behind, and the first draft writing of my novel-in-progress, The Lost Letters of Lizzie Austen.\u00a0 I’m captivated by the Cheesedown farm, where Jane Austen — and her fictional sister Lizzie — were sent to be raised by Elizabeth Littleworth, wife of farmer John Littleworth, until they reached the “age of reason.”\u00a0 Mrs. Littleworth might not have been a wet nurse because in a letter Mrs. Austen says Jane was weaned at three months.\u00a0 So presumably the poor babes were fed some sort of animal milk or gruel from a spoon or cheesecloth.\u00a0 Mrs. Littleworth was paid to take care of the Austen babies until they grew out of that awkward stage.\u00a0 When exactly would that be, I wonder?\u00a0 When they were no longer in nappies?\u00a0 When they\u00a0could walk and talk?\u00a0 Think of how the babies must have bonded to the foster mother, only to be torn away again when mother decided they were managable enough to come back to the rectory!\u00a0 Oh, it was a different world, was it not?\u00a0 And not just a world of fancy balls, furbelows and bonnets.<\/p>\n
This week I am reading about the Cheesedown farm, near the Deane parish, about two miles from Steventon.\u00a0 And about Elizabeth and John Littleworth, who cared for the Austen children — perhaps all of them — for some period of time.\u00a0 (Poor George Austen\u00a0never came back home.\u00a0 He was defective in some way.\u00a0 Intellectually challenged?\u00a0 Embarassingly different?\u00a0 Too much work?\u00a0 \u00a0So sad they never wanted him back, though apparently the family provided for his upkeep.\u00a0 George, in fact,\u00a0outlived most of the Austens.\u00a0 More on him, later…<\/p>\n
Another Austen family outcast was Aunt Lenora.\u00a0 Why did they exclude her?<\/p>\n
And so I write about Lizzie Austen\u00a0— the bad sister — who was\u00a0 sent to the Littleworths to be looked after, and was quite forgotten.\u00a0 Lizzie, of little worth.<\/p>\n
Yes, I write the dark side of Jane Austen.\u00a0\u00a0 Thanks to Lesley Adkins <\/a>for\u00a0inspiring me!\u00a0 \u00a0Stay tuned…<\/p>\n I’m reading:<\/p>\n Jane Austen’s England<\/em> by Roy and Lesley Adkins.<\/p>\n Jane Austen; A Life<\/em> by Claire Tomalin<\/p>\n Jane Austen’s Letters<\/em>.\u00a0 Colledted and Edited by Deirdre Le Faye<\/p>\n
![\"Cheesedown,](\"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/cheesedown-300x225.jpg\")
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