and her comings and goings were extensively
covered in the newspapers. Academy artists
such as Reynolds, Hoppner and Fuseli
painted her in various roles, and satirical
artists such as Cruikshank featured her in
savage attacks on the duke. Jane Austen would
undoubtedly have been familiar with Jordan’s
personal and professional reputation.
Natasha Duquette spoke about Jane
Austen’s “clergymen heroes” – Edward
Ferrars, Edmund Bertram and Henry Tilney
- touching on both music and visual arts.
She explained the history of Amazing Grace,
a popular hymn written by John Newton,
an active abolitionist who had once been
captain of slave ships. The song appeared in a
collection of hymns written by Newton and
by Austen’s favourite poet, William Cowper.
Duquette also discussed William Gilpin
and his theories of the picturesque, which
are referenced in Austen’s novels. Henry
Tilney lectures Catherine Morland on
Gilpin’s notions of perspective as they walk
on Beechen Cliff, and Edward Ferrars draws
on Gilpin to tease Marianne Dashwood.
Coincidentally, on a visit to the Yale Center
for British Art, conference participants saw
an exhibit on the history of blue pigments,
which included one of Gilpin’s watercolour
sketchbooks in which he explained
appropriate colours for elements in an
outdoor scene.
Tours on the Yale campus complemented
the conference. Members saw the Yale
Center’s extensive collection of Georgian
art and the university’s museum of musical
instruments, where harpsichords and other
period instruments were demonstrated. A
walking tour of the campus covered both the
history of the university and its architecture.
The student guide drew attention to neo-
Gothic buildings that date from the 19th
century. To give the buildings the appearance
of being several centuries old, the architect
had acid poured down the façade of one to
roughen the stone and actually set fire to the
top of another to give the blackened look of
age. We were reminded of the 18th-century
fashion for freshly constructed “ruins”
decorating the grounds of country estates.
Mark Turner entertained members with
an after-dinner talk about Regency charades,
those rhyming word puzzles collected by
Emma Woodhouse and Harriet Smith, to
which Mr Elton contributes in his clumsy
wooing. Turner’s many examples included
this charade written by Jane Austen. The
message – that romantic love may not
succeed without money – is not surprising:
You may lie on my first by the side
of a stream,
And my second compose to the nymph
you adore.
But if, when you’ve none of my whole,
her esteem
And affection diminish – think of her
no more.
(The answer is: banknote)Members returned from the conference
with a new appreciation of the cultural
environment in which Jane Austen was
writing.Music copied by Jane Austen and
featured at the British Library
(Jane Austen’s House Musuem)