The Tedettes are fascinated by Jane Austen’s History of England, written when she was 16 years old.
Her sister, Cassandra Austen, illustrated the pages. People entertained themselves this way, bears, back in the Olden Days. They wrote their own light entertainment, they drew and painted, and they read books aloud and (amazing) they talked to each other. ‘Conversation’, this was called. There were no Bright-Box-Things to stare at, you see.
So Jane and Cassandra had a fun writing their own version of the history of the Kings and Queens of England. They had strong favourites among the kings and queens. They were very stern about those they disliked. If Cassandra didn’t like a monarch she drew them looking very cross.
The Tedettes’ own copy, shown here, is a facsimile version brought out by Folio Books. You can see young Miss Austen’s own handwriting inside it as well as Cassandra’s drawings. (A book that is perhaps more easy for you to find, if you want to see it yourself, contains this History and other writings of the young Jane Austen, and is called “Sanditon, Lady Susan, & The History of England : The Juvenilia and Shorter Works of Jane Austen“.
The Tedettes are going to read more about Jane Austen and the Regency in future posts.
You have wandered into Mawson Bear’s web-den. Mawson is the Writer-Bear of It’s A Bright World To Feel Lost In and Dreamy Days and Random Naps and She Ran Away From Love. Mawson’s Guardian is co-creator of When A Brave Bear Fights Cancer, by Carola Schmidt
Mawson Bear 