Extract from chapter 25
1791: Overton
James settled quickly into his new role at St. Mary’s in Overton and actively ingratiated himself with his parishioners. He dined out wherever he was invited and joined the local hunting pack to show off his athletic prowess. There, he knew, he would meet with the cream of the neighbourhood elite.
Photo: St. Mary's Church, Overton, Hampshire.
Photo: Public road, Overton, Hampshire.
“I was only speaking of you last night in Basingstoke,” said a delighted Mr Austen, happy at the coincidence of bumping into James on the High Street after settling an account with his mercer. “I was at the campaign launch of Mr Chute and your name came up in conversation.”
William Chute was a prospective Tory candidate in the forthcoming General Election. “I didn’t realise you were so well acquainted with the man,” Mr Austen probed his son.
“Yes,” replied James easily. “We hunt together. I think it fair to say we have become good friends.”
“Yes, yes,” agreed his father. “That was my impression too. I could tell he has high regard for you. He has a mighty fine house, too.”
Photo: The Vyne, Sherborne St. John, Hampshire.
Photo: The Vyne, Sherborne St. John, Hampshire.
Mr Chute lived at The Vyne in the nearby village of Sherborne St John. It dated back to Tudor times and was one of the grandest mansions for miles.
“Yes. I have dined there on a few occasions.”
Mr Austen was impressed.
“There was another fellow who expressed an interest to know you better too, when he realised we were related, a General Mathew. He was new to the neighbourhood and I’d not met him before. Just come in from Grenada where he was Chief of the British Indies out there.”
“Yes, I know who you mean,” confirmed James with a slight blush. “He has taken Laverstoke House.”
Photo: Berrington Hall, Leominster, Herefordshire.
Photo: Bath Assembly Rooms, Bath.
“That’s right. You certainly are well informed,” smiled the proud father.
“I met the family last week,” James revealed, “when I became acquainted with his daughter at a ball.”
The involuntary blush that had rushed to his cheeks when he spoke of the General’s daughter was no mistake. The lady in question was Anne Mathew, six years older than James and unattached.
She had a slender frame that made her look vulnerable, and James had felt protective of her in the ballroom, sensing a quickening in his pulse when she looked up at him with her shy, dark eyes.
She had a pale, heart-shaped face and favoured wearing a white wig covered with rolling curls. If anything, the wig made her face look like a child, yet she met the gaze of her admirers with a woman’s dignity and charm.
Photo: Jane Austen Centre, Bath.
No number of coincidental meetings set up by Cassandra and Jane, to throw Mary Lloyd in their brother’s direction, could alter his preference for Miss Mathew, and Mary was cruelly cast aside in James’s blissful ignorance of the plan.
Anne’s father, General Mathew, had accumulated substantial wealth from his distinguished military career and his wife was from an aristocratic background. There could be no denying that marriage into this family would secure a step up the social ladder for any young curate.
Photo: St. Andrew's Church, Sherborne St. John, Hampshire.
As the months progressed, another factor in James’s favour helped him to be accepted as an eligible suitor: this was his friendship with Mr Chute. Visitors of influence were always in attendance when James dined at The Vyne and in honour of the regard he held for his new friend, Mr Chute invited James to become rector of St Andrews Church in Sherborne St John.
With a living of his own, on top of his resident curacy, James Austen was in the ideal position to support a wife.
Copyright Diane Jane Ball 2023