Saturday, June 16, 2012

Gay Daly asks what did Jane do in the year between her engagement and her marriage ?



[picture: Not Jane of course, comes from the Pallisers]

Gay Daly asks what did Jane do in the year between her engagement and her marriage ? Was she enrolled in a Ladies Academy (like Annie Miller) or had a tutor? She and her friends never said. But somehow she went from an obviously intelligent working class girl to mistress of the Red House with money and servants. 

She loved poetry including Coleridge and Dante's Vita Nuova and said a well loved poem "gives little snatches of pleasure in the saddest moments in quite unlooked for ways." She loved the opera but William found it boring and usually went with Philip Webb (who was in love with her) to Covent Garden. She learnt to play the piano rather well and read widely.

Most of all she seems to have quickly learnt how to be a Lady.
There is a theory she may have done some acting or perhaps she was just very observant. She got on well with William's mother so she obviously fitted in and didn't drop her h's.

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