Our speaker this month was Jane Glennie. Jane is an actor and historian and presented herself in period costume as Martha Lloyd, friend of Jane Austen.  Brilliant speaker, very clear diction and quite funny!

“Martha” began the evening by saying how lovely it was to be amongst friends and urged us to share any recipes and remedies we had.   This may seem a strange request, but it turns out that Martha Lloyd’s Household Book does exist. This is a handwritten book containing recipes and remedies collected from about 1796 through to 1830.    

The scene was set in 1809 just as Martha was helping Jane, her sister Cassandra and their mother pack up their belongings in Southampton in readiness for the move to the cottage in Chawton, which had been provided to them by Edward (Jane’s third brother) who had been adopted by the Knight family and thus becoming their heir.

Martha shared with us some of the early writings of Jane, which was encouraged by her family.  Her father had gifted her a writing slope which she could take with her as they travelled and moved around Hampshire and beyond.  She read out a letter that Jane wrote to the publisher who had purchased for £10 an early novel called Lady Susan, but 10 years later had not appeared in print.  Jane was politely forthright.  There was also scandal a plenty for the two friends to chat about.   Jane was known for her caustic wit and perceptive observations of people’s characters.

Although Martha featured strongly in Jane Austen’s life, she isn’t mentioned a great deal.   Despite Martha being 10 years Jane’s senior, they were firm friends.  Indeed, following the death of Jane & Cassandra’s father, Martha did live with the two sisters and their mother, both in Southampton & Chawton.  Eventually, at the age of 62 Martha married Jane’s brother Francis (also known as Frank) following the death of his first wife, although Jane did not live to see this union.  Together, they moved into Portsdown Lodge which had 14 bedrooms and 25 acres of land and when Frank was knighted in 1837, Martha became Lady Austen.

Following Jane Glennie’s portrayal of Martha Lloyd, a lively discussion about the relationship between Martha and Jane Austen took place and that, co-incidentally, our Book Club had chosen to read Miss Austen Investigates by Jessica Bull this month.  This is a fictional story featuring the Austen family and friends and set whilst Reverend Austen and his family were based in Steventon.  Whilst Martha does not feature in the book her sister Mary does.  This further extended her talk by some time!

Jane Glennie provided our WI with a very entertaining evening, and the above paragraphs do not do justice to the entertainment value she gave us. We were all very effectively transported into the life of Martha Lloyd.

Sandra Newland has updated the remaining albums she was responsible for and they are now being stored in Sheila’s Cupboard. The albums were made available on the Activities Table and provided a subject for much discussion!

As always, our members have enjoyed coming together throughout the month at their other activities.   

For our next meeting we have Lt. Col. Jeremy Prescott telling us all about Violetta Szabo who was a British-French Special Operations Executive (SOE) Agent during the Second World War and a posthumous recipient of the George Cross.  As always, we welcome non-members, we just ask for a £5 entry fee which includes refreshments, so please come along to the Village Hall on March 26 for a 7.30 p.m. start.

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