Jane Austen, Napoleon & The Guards 1805 (1 Viewer)

[PolarBear]

Part 1:

In 1803 England declared war against Napoleon’s France. Consequently, there was fear among many in England that Napoleon might invade England. The Royal Navy was assigned the task of establishing a protective and defensive network along the coastline in case a French invasion force should try to attack. The shoreline along the County of Kent, which lay across the channel from the French port of Boulogne, was one such location where these measures were put into effect. Among the naval officers charged with this task was Francis Austen. He organized the fishermen around Pegwell Bay on the Kentish coast into one such observational group. The young naval officer was the brother of Jane Austen, who in 1811 would publish her first novel, Sense and Sensibility.

Illustrations:

Francis Austen
Royal Navy 1805
Pegwell Bay, Kent

 

[PolarBear]

Part 2:


Kent and its nearby coastline were a favorite summer retreat during this time for Jane Austen and other members of her family. In August of 1805 Jane was staying at the estate of the Bridges family, Goodnestone Farm, about 7 miles from the coast and Pegwell Bay where any French invasion would be likely to occur. Jane’s sister Cassandra was also in Kent at this time and the two women corresponded on a regular basis. Here is a fragment of a letter that Jane wrote to her sister on August 30, 1805 during England’s war with France:

“Next week seems to be an unpleasant one to this family [her hosts the Bridges] on the matter of the game [a planned partridge hunt]. The evil intentions of the Guards are certain, and the gentlemen of the neighbourhood seem unwilling to come forward in any decided or early support of their rights. Edward Bridges has been trying to arouse their spirits, but without success. Mr. Hammond, under the influence of daughters and an expected ball, declares he will do nothing.”

Military history has come to the aid of literary history in deciphering Austen’s reference to “the Guards”. In August of 1805, England was rife with rumors of an imminent invasion by the French and in response, the military began a series of troop movements in preparation for such a possibility. Goodnestone where Jane was staying was located 7 miles west of the coastal town of Deal and 40 miles east of Chatham. Deal was home to the 1st and 2nd Grenadier Guards while Chatham was garrisoned by the 1st Coldstream Guards and the 1st Scots Guards. These were “the Guards” Austen is referring to in her letter to Cassandra. The 2 garrisons were ordered to switch locations: the Grenadiers were to move from Deal to Chatham and the Coldstreams and Scots Guards were to exchange Chatham for Deal. Goodnestone and Jane were therefore in the direct path of the soldiers changing their positions in response to the threat of French invasion. Thus Austen’s letter refers to the disruptions to a county life of hunting and balls and the inability of the residents to do anything to prevent it. In the few lines of the letter we get a glimpse into the broader historical period that is the context for Austen’s novels. Although the Napoleonic Wars were never a subject of her fiction, a number of her characters were members of the British military that participated in that conflict.

Illustrations:

Jane Austen
Jane Austen in a watercolor by her sister Cassandra
Goodnestone

 

[PolarBear]

Part 3:


William Britain in its Redcoats and Petticoat series has given collectors a 3 dimensional recreation of some of the participants involved in the troop movements in Kent in the summer of 1805 that Austen’s letter has recorded for us. These figures provide a nice context for the new Jane Austen series to be issued in 2009. It is of interest that Pride and Prejudice (1813) the subject of Britains’ initial Austen offerings was begun after Jane’s earlier visit to Goodnestone in 1796.

Illustrations:

1805 Officer 1st Foot Guards (The Grenadier Guards)
1805 Private 1st Foot Guards (The Greandier Guards)
1805 Lady in an Afternoon Dress (How Jane and Cassandra might have been dressed)
Wm. Britains 2009 Pride & Prejudice Series sampleseries

 

[PolarBear]

Austen and Military--Civilian Relations:


Austen's 1805 letter during a time of possible military conflict with France on English soil contains a certain amount of irony in its characterization of the response of the local populous in this time of crisis. The key to this is her phrase "the evil intentions of the Guards".The owners of the farms and estates in the area about to be crossed by troops on the move do not want their daily lives and pleasures such as game hunting or an upcoming ball disturbed by the intervention of war. So any thought that their normal routine might be disturbed by the presence of the military is categorized as "the evil intentions of the Guards." Surely among these gentlemen farmers there was fear that their crops would be trampled and that their livestock would be poached in the process of troop movements.

Some notion of this type of wartime disruption of civilians may be seen in the wood engraving below from Harper's Weekly that shows Union troops during the American Civil War foraging animals from the property of farmers whose land they were crossing on their way to the front.

 

[PolarBear]

Austen and the Other Ranks

The concern about the "evil intentions of Guards" in Austen's letter also reflects the class bias of the era. The soldiers in Austen's novels are officers from the middle or upper classes of society. The lower classes in all walks of life with the exception of servants are absent from her writings. The other ranks of the military at this time were often depicted as crude, rude, and sometimes just plain drunken rabble. William Hogarth in an 18th C painting entitled the March to Finchley clearly demonstrates this attitude.

Here is a description of the subject:

"Hogarth’s painting is partly a comic satire on disorder and indiscipline in the British army, and partly a sympathetic portrayal of the disruption to civilian life caused by war. It presents a scene of leave-taking between distracted and drunken soldiers and about-to-be-deserted women and children. The composition as a whole is anti-heroic; a burlesque on the traditional battle heroics portrayed in grand history painting. The title itself is clearly ironic for a form of ‘progress’ that more closely resembles a lurch, or stumble, than a march. In as much as they are moving at all, the soldiers in the foreground are moving in all directions, caught between the symbolism of the dead tree and brothel to the right and that of the tree in full leaf and plant nursery to the left."

This attitude was still present in the minds of Austen and her friends in Kent in August of 1805.

 

[Leadmen]

Thanks Randy for your informative history and pictures of this time period. Great work. John

 

[Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio]

Hi There Randy!
Great stuff and thank you for posting it for folks!
Additional analysis of the Hogarth painting 'March to Finchley' was that although the army might be made up of the dregs for the Other Ranks... when called upon they would be the bulwark of the country.
This is graphically shown in the painting with the unruly mass in the village street assembling to form the disciplined army that we see off in the distance marching in orderly ranks.
To some degree this probably indicates the publics love/hate relationship with professional soldiers.

Recruiting has always been a problem for armies since the emergence of nationalism and industry. During the early nineteenth century in North America a young man might make more money as a common laborer rather than joining the army.
Only with the outbreak of war with Great Britain in North America in 1812 did the military ranks swell, but even then it was not the regular army that swelled, but the volunteer organizations.

Similar conditions existed in Great Britain with the raising of Volunteers and Militias to defend the home country against invasion, rather than taking the King's Shilling for the Regulars and long term service.

..Just some rambling,
Ken

 

[REVWARBUFF]

Thanks for posting this intersting thread. As always you teach us so much about the history behind our hobby and you do an excellent job at that.

Mark

 

[thebritfarmer]

Another excellent thread Randy, I take it you will be purchasing a few of the Jane Austen figures and if so I look forward to the pictures that you will be taking.

 

[Andanna]

I can only piggyback previous comments: Great thread on an excellent subject. Great work.