As a reader (both as a scholar and as a fan) and lover of Jane Austen’s works, I became a fan and lover of Chawton House Library. And this is why I have included Chawton House Library in my estate planning. Why include CHL? Before even using the texts of the women writers who preceded and influenced Austen, I was strolling around the grounds and found myself in the ‘wilderness.’

Immediately, Lady Catherine’s words from Pride and Prejudice came to mind: determined to prevent Elizabeth’s marrying Darcy, Lady Catherine directs Elizabeth to “a prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side your lawn.” And Lady Catherine, of course, wildly accuses Elizabeth in a most unlady-like fashion. Likewise, I recalled that in Mansfield Park during the Sotherton visit, the Bertrams, Crawfords, Rushworth, and Fanny exit the mansion house and ‘landed . . . in the wilderness’ and then encounter that highly symbolic ha-ha. And behold! As I continued to stroll, there was a ha-ha on the estate — though unlike Maria, I kept my moral core under control.

Then I entered the Library building: I looked at the portraits on the walls and began reading the books held there by such key early women writers as Frances Burney, Sarah Fielding, Charlotte Smith, and many more: these are authors about whom I had read years ago in Dale Spender’s groundbreaking book, Mothers of the Novel. And these and other writers are authors of works that Jane Austen read. Spender’s book is subtitled 100 Good Women Writers Before Jane Austen. Before Spender’s book appeared in 1986, hardly anyone recognized that there were good women writers before Austen, let alone one hundred. Inspired by Dr. Spender’s book, Sandy Lerner, founder of Chawton House Library, began collecting these books. And at the Library, scholars can read them— sometimes in the only existing copy.

The importance of this library, whether for its collection of books, periodicals, and other materials or for its landscape that taught me so much about Austen’s settings, cannot be exaggerated. This is why it is in my estate planning and why, having pledged a gift, I am pleased to become the first member of the 1817 Legacy Circle.

It is also such an added privilege to be writing this blog here at Chawton House Library today.

Joan Ray, Professor Emerita, University of Colorado.

27th April 2014, Chawton House Library, Chawton, Hampshire, England.