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To Austen-l Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 I was planning to mention the following point when a recent posting by
Ellen Moody added even another motive.
JA's descriptions of the settings of her stories - the food, the clothes,
the furniture, etc, are usually so vague that we note with delight the
occasional meaningful reference. Although NA is considered a lightweight
work in comparison with the others, it seems to have more than its share of
significant historical references. One is at the beginning, where the
casual reference to baseball as one of Catherine's childhood enjoyments is
recognized as significant in dating that game. Another occurs in Chapter 20
just as Catherine reaches the abbey. At least I think it is very
interesting, but I suspect that there are not many other engineers on this
list. When she arrives, Catherine notes that the fireplace in the hall had
been "contracted to a Rumford" from its original medieval proportions.
Rumford, of course, was a major scientist of the period who did important
work on the properties of heat and energy. He studied the theory and design
of fireplaces and showed how they could be much more efficient with narrow
and tall proportions. His ideas were broadcast around the mid-1790's and
attracted considerable interest. It is perfectly in character for such an
improver as General Tilney to modernize his fireplaces, but it impresses me
that they came to JA's knowledge at such an early stage. I doubt if
anything can be proved from this reference about the dates of these
chapters, but I would find it hard to believe that JA could have been
familiar with the Rumford fireplace in her pre-1800 days at Steventon. A
date like 1810 would be much more plausible.
Don Taylor
To which I replied:
Ah. Now I find this very interesting. I would never have known
this kind of information--and I doubt many Austen scholars or
readers would either. It is precisely this kind of external
evidence that is most important in trying to gauge over what
a long period of time most of Austen's texts seem to have
been written and rewritten. Some of Miss Bates's comments
have lead some critics to suggest a first draft of that novel
was begun in 1802 because of the way she names Ireland.
Myself I think the least rewritten of them are Persuasion
and Sanditon.
Ellen Moody
Date: Sat, 6 Dec 1997 I hope Gina Wallace will respond to this thread. She's written before
about her Rumford fireplace--fascinating stories which people new to the
list may not know about. We had some interesting posts some months ago
about Rumford which will be in the Austen-L archives. (Easier said than done!
Accessing our archives is not for the computer-challenged!)
Anyway--Gina, I hope you'll contribute to this discussion.
Ursula Rempel
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 Of course, Austen could have read about Rumfords if she read the popular
magazines of the time, which often had essays on just such topics of
technological interest. Having read a bunch of such magazines in my time,
I can attest one can learn all about a wide variety of antiquarian and
contemporary material (such as about balloon launches and the military
conflicts England had with Denmark and Sweden.
Linda Troost Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 I couldn't prove that JA would not have known about Rumford fireplaces
before 1800 but I remain very skeptical. This was not a discovery like a
new planet, it was a new design for a fireplace that was claimed to be
better. It takes years for enough people to build them and try them, and
for masons to be willing to learn how to make them, before their reputation
could spread through the country. This is not a topic that would naturally
appeal to a young woman in her early twenties, and I don't recall anything
in her letters or biographies to suggest that she or her family had any
particular interest in such inventions. Even if she had heard about the
Rumford fireplace at an early stage I doubt that she would put a reference
into her book until she was sure that it was widely known and accepted. To
me, all these factors point to the later revision rather than to the first
writing of NA.
Another Rumford "invention" that we have tried in our kitchen is his
recommendation to roast meat much more slowly than the usual practice. He
found and we have confirmed that with a lower oven temperature and about
twice the time, the roast comes out much juicier and more tender, even if
well done. Try it!
Don Taylor
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