Lady Pamela Interviews Miss Bates!

Miss Bates...The Interview

 I am delighted to have you join me as I have recently had the pleasure of interviewing Miss Bates of Highbury .    I have always admired Miss Bates, and felt sure the rest of you would enjoy our conversation.  I was able to arrange the interview, rather extemporaneously, while recently in Highbury on a shopping expedition.  I  happened  to pass her on the street, and upon introductions (as I am a  distant relation of the Coles in Highbury) she begged me to join her and her esteemed mother for a spot of tea in their cosy parlor.

Miss Bates:  Oh my. How is Lord Foster's health? We have been making anxious inquiries about him since we have heard of his troubles.  Perhaps he should take a bit of Water -Gruel?  Is that not what  your friend Mr. Woodhouse takes?  But his must be nice a smooth gruel, thin, but not too thin.   And thank you so for your visit, you are too kind to visit.  Mr. Elton was here the other day and brought us these shoes.  He is always showing such kindness and felicity to the poor of the town.  Now please sit down and have some of the sweet cake from the buffet.

Lady Pamela:  Thank you so much for  so cordially and gratefully welcoming me to join you and Mrs. Bates in for some tea. Yes, Lord Foster is doing much better, he is an excellent patient, lies quietly in bed and is ready to swallow anything.  He lives upon medicine, tea and barley water.   I will tell him of the water gruel you speak so highly of.

Miss Bates:  Oh , yes!  He must certainly have the water gruel.  It is sure to raise his spirits.  The apothecary may also recommend a stout Dandelion tea, I  approve of it  highly.  I believe the Campbells are quite taken with dandelion tea, by my honour!  With some slight alterations , he will have a strong constitution, as strong as my mother's.  "Ma'am", Do you hear  what I am recommending to Lady Pamela?  The DANDELION TEA?"

Lady Pamela:  I will be sure to recommend the water gruel and the dandelion tea as you suggest to Lord Foster.   Um, I thought I heard from Mrs. Cole that you had received a letter  recently from your pen friend of the Jane Austen Letter Writing Society?

Miss Bates: Oh here it is! I was sure it could not be far off, but I had put my huswif on it, you see , without being aware, and so it was quite hid, but I had it in my hand so very lately that I was almost sure it must be on the table.  I was reading it to Mrs. Cole, and since she went away, I was reading it again to my mother, for it is such a pleasure to her--a letter from the Jane Austen Letter Writing Society--that she can never hear it often enough!  Oh yes, I received a lovely letter, from Mrs. P___  of the Society, what a great pleasure, and such a handsome letter, I do declare.  And it was not her turn for writing. But you see, just like her, so considerate!  Such a handsome letter, yes it is--is it not, mother?  "THE LETTER , MOTHER, THE LETTER FROM THE SOCIETY?"  Bless me,  Upon my honour!

Lady Pamela:  Oh , indeed it is quite handsome!!  It is charming and I know it filled you all with felicitous joy.  And so cleverly made.  I  must see what I can do to make mine as clever as this letter from your Mrs. P___!  I make it my way to have something entertaining...be it  prose or verse, original or repeated, or two things moderately clever--or three things  very dull indeed!   But, I am afraid I must be running away, I had no intention, no power of staying more than five minutes.

And as I walked down the road, I reflected upon the good Miss Bates.

“Miss Bates…had never boasted either beauty or cleverness. Her youth had passed without distinction, and her middle of life was devoted to the care of a failing mother, and the endeavour to make a small income go as far as possible. And yet she was a happy woman, and a woman whom no one named without good-will. It was her own universal goodwill and contented temper which worked such wonders. She loved every body, was interested in every body’s happiness and quick-sighted to every body’s merits; thought herself a most fortunate creature, and surrounded with blessings in such an excellent mother and so many good neighbours and friends, and a home that wanted for nothing. The simplicity and cheerfulness of her nature, her contented and grateful spirit, were a recommendation to every body and a mine of felicity to herself.”

The idea of an interview with one of my favorite characters of Jane Austen, [EMMA]  our dear Miss Bates, sprang from my introduction email with my pen friend from the Jane Austen Letter Writing Society!  Lady Simone had requested that we try our hand at writing "in character" .  Unfortunately, I have been a rather poor correspondent this exchange, so we never got to really discuss this aspect, but it DID get me thinking.   At first I thought of sending a letter , in character, and perhaps extending their story...but I really didn't have the time to do so.  Then I thought of  the interview angle, and thought that I could lift a scene or two involving dear Miss Bates, randomly insert some of MY life....skip around and throw in  a few quotes from Jane's letters and here you have it.

I went ahead and sent a copy of the interview  (my letter), a card, tag and a single serving of Dandy Blend to sip while reading it all.  I hope she enjoys it.   By the way, Lady Simone had one of the cutest applications for the Society!  She has a great sense of humor, and hope she will sign up for the next exchange, to bless another member!

Oh, and yes, there is a back side to the envelope...properly sealed, Jane approved!

Write Letters,

Write Often!

Lady Pamela

New Etsy Store For All Your Jane Austen Stationery Needs!

Hurry on over to my Instagram to enter!

Announcing the Grand Opening of my new ETSY store:  JaneAustenMissives!!  I am having a nice give away on my intstagram account: Janeaustenletterwritingsociety

I am offering a Jane Austen Mini Kit, and a 4 sticker set of  Jane Austen Stickers.   Just go to my instagram account and follow the directions from yesterday's post.   

I want to also give a huge shout out to Miss Anne at Heart Sealed Art and Design for her amazing logo design and artistic  touch to my beautiful Etsy store.  Please go to Anne if you need any log or custom art design work!

So, hurry on over to my Instagram...and win some lovely stationery items for your Jane Austen Needs!

Write Letters

Write Often,

Lady Pamela

Etsy:  JaneAustenMissives

The Model Letter Writer

Are you a Model Letter Writer?

The Model Letter Writer

Or, Art of Polite Correspondence 

For

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Containing A 

Complete Essay on Letter Writing,

Also A Course Of Interesting Letters On

BUSINESS, LOVE, COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE

BY:  NELLIE GREENWAY (c.  1910)

This book is AMAZING!  Never mind that the book is literally  crumbling in my very hands, it is a gem in the rough.   What really caught my eye was the introduction which is a 28 page Essay on Letter Writing.  Oh yes, this is definitely up my ally.  

I hope to give my readers little snippets of this charming book over time.  But, dear reader, be sure to have a dictionary close at hand.  You will find, sadly, that our vocabulary has quite shrunk over time.   So let us begin with a portion from the Essay.

CONCISENESS OR PROLIXITY OF STYLE

Conciseness is one of the charms of letter -writing: we do not mean to say that a letter should not contain sufficient facts , ideas, and feelings; but they ought to be as briefly expressed as perspicuity and elegance will permit.  If we encounter an idea with verbiage, it loses it power.  There are some persons who, when they express a feeling or a thought, of which simplicity should be the charm, clothe it with all the verbs they possess: this is like wearing one's whole wardrobe at once;the figure is lost in the mass of drapery.  Lengthened periods are as much out of place in a letter as they would be in conversation, of which letters may be called the prototype; for they tire the reader even more than they would the hearer : when written, their faults are also perceived with much less difficulty than when spoken.  Our style of course, may rise with our subject: but all parade of words should be dropped in a familiar epistle.  The death of a friend  or relation , a calamity, or any circumstance of grave importance should not be communicated in the same manner as a trifling occurrence , or even a happy event: brevity, in these cases , is beauty; in those it would be deemed unfeeling and abrupt.  "You ask me to send you news of your favorite school-fellow, Harriet:--she is married."  This mode of communicating such an even is unexceptionable: but it would be most improper to state the death of a person in the same manner;that is, by merely substituting "dead" for "married."  In announcing the death if a friend, we should communicate the fact in a way comporting with the gravity of the subject as thus--"It is with melancholy feelings I reply to your inquiries respecting our old school-fellow, Charles Grosvenor.  A few weeks ago he was the animated and intelligent companion of all around him,but he was seized with a typhus fever , the violence of which baffled the skill of his physicians, and terminated his life last week, at the house of his father."

But in aiming at the acquirement of an elegant and easy brevity, it is incumbent on us at once to avoid falling into a rugged or an enigmatical style, and becoming so concise as to be unintelligible.  Boileau, echoing Horace, says, "J evite d'être long ,et je divines obscure."  This is a fault which must be avoided; it is even better to be prol 'x and intelligible than brief and obscure.

To an absent friend, an elaborate letter will be most welcome: a stranger, a superior , or a person of whom the writer is seeks something, will recoil from a "folio of four pages" and, perhaps, throw it aside unread ,or, at best, but slightly skimmed over.  When the party, to whom a letter is addressed , is uninterested in the subject on which it is written, the writer  of it should display a brevity, which will attract attention, and insure a perusal :  no unnecessary ornament should be used, nor , in fact, anything introduced but what is important and bears strongly on the case stated, or the inquiry made.

All these little personal details and trifling circumstances which are so delightful in a letter from a friend, would fatigue and disgust a stranger, or a superior, to whom they are destitute of interest.

Lessons I learned from this portion:  

1.  Too  much flowery talk in a letter loses power.

2.  There is a balance between too much information and too little.  Avoid coldness with excessive conciseness.

3. Be sure to approach subjects of gravity (death of a friend, calamity ) with great care and sensitivity.

4.  Be conscience of your relationship with  the  recipient .  If the recipient is a total stranger,  then there needs to be brevity and  a "getting to the point" in the letter.

I hope you have enjoyed this little lesson on letter writing from the past.

Write Letters,

Write Often,

Lady Pamela