All those scratch-off tickets that Bridget Jones bought are going to a good cause. Chawton Cottage will receive £500,000 from the Lottery Fund for improvements.

A museum spokesman said: “This time we are aiming to fulfil, and hopefully exceed, 21st century visitor expectation.

“The money will be spent moving all sales out of the house to create an even more homely feel, and, to enable the long awaited reopening of the kitchen.

“A new learning centre will perform the function of the old Granary meeting room and will have the added bonus of some interactive exhibits while demand for an audio/visual facility will also be realised.” The Heritage Lottery Fund award comes as the museum prepares to mark next year’s bicentenary of Jane Austen’s arrival in Chawton in 1809.

We can’t wait to see the improvements!

We know a lot of our Gentle Readers are waiting breathlessly for this news, so we picked up our jaw off the table as soon as we received it and made haste to blog.

Reuters reports that the presentation copy of Emma once owned by Jane Austen’s friend, governess Anne Sharp, has sold at auction for the record-setting price of £180,000, or approximately $353,500.

The book, one of 12 presentation copies, was given by Austen to her friend Anne Sharp, who had been governess to the children of Austen’s brother Edward.

The three-volume set of “Emma” had been expected to fetch between 50,000 and 70,000 pounds.

“The family are delighted with the price fetched today.

We’ll bet! More later, we’re sure!

ETA: In comments, Alert Janeite Boris pointed us to an article at the BBC site that reveals (sort of) the identity of the seller and how the book came into their possession.

The British vendor, who wants to remain anonymous, is descended from a family that married into the family of Richard Withers, who was left property belonging to Ms Sharp when she died.

So it’s a family heirloom of sorts. Also there is a little bit of context for the sale:

In March, Bonhams sold a rare, inscribed first edition of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit for a world record-breaking £60,000.

And in November last year, it sold a first edition of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights for £114,000.

The Guardian and The Daily Mail have articles about the auction as well.

The campaign continues!

We’re the Editrix and we approve this message.

Alert Janeite Carola sent us a link to an interesting item at the BBC America Shop — a 2-CD set of music from Jane Austen’s time, some from her own collection!

This meticulously researched set brings you music collected by the Austen family during Jane’s lifetime—including pieces Jane copied by hand—to entertain their guests and themselves.

Cool!

Carolyn Kellogg linked to AustenBlog yesterday from the Los Angeles Times‘ Jacket Copy blog in a post about the mourning locked auctioned last week. We are still v. v. curious to know who bought not only the locket but the first edition of S&S and the presentation copy of Emma and–did anyone at all buy the miniature of Tom Lefroy? Nothing on the radar about that one…hmm.

From Financial Week:

And we hope you’ll find considerable fuel for thought in our wide-ranging package of stories on everything from building a better corporate 401(k) plan to avoiding IRS scrutiny of tax-deferring variable prepaid forward contracts. Not exactly beach reading, I know. (Semi-embarrassing revelation: The wife will not allow me to bring to the beach this year any book that’s about money. “Unless it’s Jane Austen.”)

Ha!

Now, this looks like fun: a camp teaching preteen girls about life in the 1800s.

The girls sew a sampler, a reticule as well as make a bonnet and dolls all the while learning about life for a young girl in that time period.

The girls get to learn card games of the period and about gardening with herbs. All of them keep a journal, and there are daily tea parties.

The week ends with a tea party where the campers get to invite one guest to join them.

“This is the best camp I have been to,” Lauren said as she headed back inside the camp workroom.

We want to go to Camp Jane!