My Everything Friend. The Mind cupboard

                                                                                 The City of Bath

 

 

Dear Reader,

Chawton House is situated about 400m away from the cottage where Jane Austen lived for the last eight years of her life.   The present Chawton House was built, starting in 1580, by John Knight, based on an older manor house.  The estate had been owned by the Knight family since 1551.  The house if built of flint with stone dressings and a tiled roof.

Jane and her sister Cassandra moved to Chawton in July 1809 with their mother and Martha Lloyd.  Chawton House was offered to them, rent-free by their elder brother Edward, who inherited estates in Chawton, Steventon and Godmersham, from rich relatives. 

When she arrived at Chawton Jane Austen had written three novels in draft form, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey.  She revised these novels at the house before getting them published.  It was here she wrote Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion.

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From Dorothy Wordsworth  May 20th 1800 in Westmorland

'A fine mild rain.   After breakfast the sky cleared and before the clouds passed from the hills I went to Ambleside.  It was a sweet morning.  Everything green and overflowing with life, and the streams making a perpetual song, with the thrushes and all little birds not forgetting the stone-chats.'

From D.H. Lawrence   May 24th  1916 in Cornwall

'The country is simply wonderful, blue, graceful little companies of bluebells everywhere on the moors, the gorse in flame, and on the cliffs and by the sea, a host of primroses, like settling butterflies, and seapinks like a hover of pink bees, near the water.   There is a Spanish ship run on the rocks just below - great excitement everywhere.'

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My Everything Friend

 

You were so everything,  Jill

funny, clever, good.

You were my always friend

in navy skirt, white blouse

Hermes scarf and pumps.

 

We shared our love of Jane Austen

visited Chawton over the years.

One summer we visited Bath

explored the city

had a vegetarian lunch,

shared a bottle of white wine

laughed and laughed.

 

You worked hard,

helped people from all

walks of life,

made a difference.

Your children adored you

and so did mine.

 

 But cancer stole you,

took your life early

at its end,

leaving me grief stricken, bereft,

my one time, everything,

not replaceable,

friend.

 

May 13th, 2024

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The Mind Cupboard

 

 

 

 My mind cupboard overflows

with unwanted debris.

It needs a spring clean.

 

I will brush away the cobwebs

of cheerless thoughts.

Scrub out the stains of childhood.

 

I will replace the brass hooks

corroded with salt tears,

empty all the screams

hoarded through the years.

 

I will replace the accumulated ashes

from the worn shelf-paper,

with virgin tissue.

 

I will chase and catch the wasps,

relieve them of their stings.

I will refill this cupboard

with love, and learnt, brighter things.

 

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With very best wishes, Patricia