Speaking of country houses: an essay | The country house in Jane Austen's novels | JASA's country house weekend

Country Houses in Jane Austen's novels - Emma

Hartfield, by Jack Edmonds
Donwell Abbey, by Nora Walker

Hartfield

In Emma, Jane doesn’t give us any lengthy, detailed description of Hartfield and its grounds, and the reason for this comes very early in the book. Emma’s father is a valetudinarian, which the dictionary defines as a person unduly anxious about health. These odd humours of Mr Woodhouse plus his advanced age precluded the holding of major events, such as dances, balls or large picnics at Hartfield, so there was no point in describing the grand rooms that a house ‘three times’ the size of Randall’s would have had available for these events. But throughout the novel - sometimes from just a sentence or paragraph - we are able to glean quite a bit of information about the Woodhouse residence.

The house is sixteen miles from London and half a mile from the centre of Highbury, a ‘large and populous village almost amounting to a town.’ In good weather it is a pleasant walk to the shops, church and friends’ homes for Emma and for visitors coming from the village to Hartfield.

We will start our short tour of the house at the front gate. When Frank Churchill rescued Harriet from the gypsies and escorted her to Hartfield ‘the great iron sweep gate opened’. A ‘great iron sweep gate’ would need something very solid to be bolted to, so we can be sure it was set in a suitable size brick or stone wall. We haven’t very far to walk down the gravel drive to the house - ‘the iron gates and the front-door are not twenty yards asunder.’

But before we go inside we will have a look at its design. During the strawberry-picking outing to Mr Knightley’s, his Donwell Abbey is described as ‘larger than Hartfield, and totally unlike it, covering a good deal of ground, rambling and irregular’, and this gives to me a picture of Hartfield having the neat, straight lines of Georgian architecture.

'the neat straight lines of Georgian architecture’and ‘the iron gates and the front-door are not twenty yards asunder.’

Is this your Hartfield? The west front of Claydon House, Buckinghamshire.
From The Book of Houses by Geoffrey Hindley, 1973, Triune Books.

The only general description of the interior of the house and garden I could find comes from Mrs Elton.

The very first subject, after being seated, was Maple Grove, ‘My brother, Mr Suckling’s seat’ - a comparison of Hartfield to Maple Grove. The grounds of Hartfield were small, but neat and pretty; and the house was modern and well built. Mrs Elton seemed most favourably impressed by the size of the room, the entrance, and all she could see or imagine.

‘Very like Maple Grove indeed! - She was quite struck by the likeness! - That room was the very shape and size of the morning-room at Maple Grove; her sister’s favourite room … So extremely like Maple Grove! And it is not merely the house - the grounds, I assure you, as far as I could observe, are strikingly like. The laurels at Maple Grove are in the same profusion as here, and stand very much in the same way - just across the lawn; and I had a glimpse of a fine large tree, with a bench round it, which put me so exactly in mind! My brother and sister will be enchanted with this place. People who have extensive grounds themselves are always pleased with any thing in the same style.’

Well there we have praise indeed. Mrs E finds Hartfield as splendid as Maple Grove!

There is very little said about the furniture in the house, though I’m sure it would be of a good quality, most likely inherited by Mr Woodhouse from his father. But we do know that in the dining room there is a large modern circular table which Emma had introduced at Hartfield, and which none but Emma could have had power to place

there and persuade her father to use, instead of the small-sized Pembroke, on which two of his daily meals had for forty years been crowded.

Now we will leave the house and have a look at what lies beyond the lawns, shrubbery, and laurel trees.

The landed property of Hartfield certainly was inconsiderable, being a sort of notch in the in the Donwell Abbey estate. (E, Ch.16)

So it certainly wasn’t a commercial farm. But the ‘notch’ would have to contain at least a dozen acres or so, for the ‘extensive grounds’ must have also included fruit trees, poultry, pigs (a whole hind quarter of pork was sent to the Bates family), and the horses, cows and perhaps some sheep would need large fields to graze in.

Hartfield is a comfortable home for Mr Woodhouse. The fireplaces and their chimneys would always be kept in perfect order. The windows and doors would close tightly to keep out those cold, damp drafts of air that play havoc with one’s health. It is a handsome residence, worthy of a gentleman, at the top or second top of the social ladder in Highbury. When Emma is fuming over Mr Elton’s arrogance to dare ‘raise his eyes to her’ we get from her stream of thoughts…

that the Woodhouses had been settled for several generations at Hartfield, the younger branch of a very ancient family, and had long held a high place in the consideration of the neighbourhood which Mr Elton had first entered not two years ago, to make his way as he could, without any alliances but in trade.

While her father’s fortune came from — ‘other sources.’ No doubt one day, the script writer of the recent movie on Mansfield Park will write one for Emma, in which Mr Woodhouse’s fortune ‘from other sources’ will loom large!

Jack Edmonds

Donwell Abbey

The name Donwell leads one to an allegorical approach in describing the house. It is or has Done Well, and it is an Abbey, a place therefore representing centuries of worship, spirituality and care for and of the neighbourhood. We know that it is old when we hear it described through Emma’s eyes…

as she viewed the respectable size and style of the building, its suitable, becoming characteristic situation, low and sheltered - its ample gardens stretching down to the meadows washed by a stream, of which the Abbey, with its old neglect of prospect, had scarcely a sight. (p358)

The fact that it is low lying, and hidden from sight tells us that this is an old establishment built at a time when it was prudent to be hidden from would-be marauders in times of war. From the 18th century buildings were built with a ‘prospect’. Donwell can be seen in contrast with Northanger Abbey: Donwell maintains tradition whereas modernisation is the order of the day at Northanger. Jane Austen valued tradition, as we are made aware in Mansfield Park and the description of Sotherton, where traditions such as family prayers have been discontinued and beautiful trees may be torn down. By contrast Donwell has

its abundance of timber in rows and avenues, which neither fashion nor extravagance had rooted up (p358)

Donwell Abbey is fruitful, providing physical as well as spiritual nourishment for the community it serves. Donwell in fact is a representation of an ideal world best summed up in Emma’s thoughts…

It was a sweet view - sweet to the eye and the mind. English verdure, English culture, English comfort, seen under a sun bright, without being oppressive. (P360)

Nora Walker

References from the Chapman edition

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9 August 2000