Somewhere, William Larkin weeps
An article about Kent quotes Jane Austen’s letters and points out that her brother Edward’s main property was Godmersham in that county.
People get so horribly poor and economical in this part of the world that I have no patience with them,” wrote Jane Austen from Hampshire. “Kent is the only place for happiness; everybody is rich there.”
She was thinking, I should imagine, of the Kent of the great country houses - silver furniture at Knole, baronial halls at Penshurst Place, the troubadour romance of Leeds Castle. Her brother, Edward, inherited Godmersham Park, near Canterbury, and Jane often visited him there.
We were, however, distressed, in a mild confused Mr. Woodhousean sort of way, by the following tidbit:
Some of this Kent remains. Although the EU paid for most of the apple trees to be grubbed up, to replace tasty Kentish apples with cardboardy Golden Delicious
We had our Jane Austen moment du jour tonight in the local food emporium, where we purchased some lovely Gala apples, very good for this time of year, and decided that William Larkin must have sent over another bushel. (A baked apple is very wholesome, you know.) We dare say Mr. Larkin would be most distressed by this rooting-up business. And what will Miss Fairfax have for her mid-morning snack? Dear, dear.
