The items provided for Mr Woodhouse’s amusement were probably part of the Knightley family’s art collection-a collection or cabinet of curiosities amassed over a long period of time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr.\nKnightley had done all in his power for Mr. Woodhouse’s entertainment. Books of\nengravings, drawers of medals, cameos, corals, shells, and every other family\ncollection within his cabinets, had been prepared for his old friend, to while\naway the morning; and the kindness had perfectly answered. Mr. Woodhouse had\nbeen exceedingly well amused. Mrs. Weston had been showing them all to him, and\nnow he would show them all to Emma; fortunate in having no other resemblance to\na child, than in a total want of taste for what he saw, for he was slow,\nconstant, and methodical.
\nChapter 42<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These cabinets\nof curiosities (also known as Wunderkammern<\/em>,\nor cabinets of wonder) proliferated throughout Europe\nin the 16th and 17th centuries. Collectors were typically encyclopaedic in\ntheir approach, and the cabinets contents were items thought to be exceptional,\nrare, and marvellous. the items JA decribes- drawers\nof medals, cameos, corals, shells, and every other family collection within his\ncabinets<\/em>– were typical of the sort of items which made their way into such\ncollections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is a link\nto a description of the Cabinet of\nCuriosities <\/a>assembled by\nthe famous Tradescant family, gardeners to the Cecil family of Burghley and\nQueen Henrietta Maria, which became known as the Ark\nand was opened to the public, forming the basis of the Ashmolean Museum:<\/p>\n\n\n\n To\nbe ‘curious’ was a compliment in Elizabethan\/Jacobean times and both\nTradescants became famous for gardening, design, travel and their collection of\ncuriosities. The epitaph on their tombstone describes very well why they became\nwell known, and the interest there is today in their activities. This can be\nread today on their tomb at the museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The John\nTradescant the Elder first travelled after 1609 when he entered the service of\nRobert Cecil who became the first Earl of Salisbury. He visited Europe to bring back plants and trees including roses,\nfritillaries and mulberries to the gardens at Hatfield. Later, in the service\nof Sir Edward Wotton, Tradescant accompanied a diplomatic mission to Russia, and he also visited Algiers, always taking botanical notes and\ngathering plants. By the 1620’s Tradescant had achieved a prominent position as\na director of gardens whose advice was sought by the highest in the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1626 Tradescant\nleased a house in Lambeth where he developed his own garden and a cabinet of\ncuriosities where he displayed ‘all things strange and rare’ that he brought\nback from his travels. The original is in the Ashmolean, and a copy is on\ndisplay in the museum. Tradescant’s home came to be called ‘The Ark’ and was an\nessential site to see in London at the time as more was being learnt about the\nworld and different cultures. It was the first museum of its kind in Britain open to\nthe public, charging 6d admission…<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the\nsuggestion of Elias Ashmole, he began to catalogue the collection at the Ark, and the Musaeum\nTradescantianum of 1656 was the first museum catalogue published. Tradescant\nwilled that the collection was to go to his widow on his death, but Elias\nAshmole obtained the collection by deed of gift and established the Ashmolean Museum\nin Oxford with\nthe collection. Some of these original items can still be seen in that museum\nand Ashmole is also buried at the Museum\n of Garden History. The\ntomb of the Tradescants stands beside the knot garden near that of Captain\nBligh of the Bounty, and is covered in carvings representing their interests in\nlife which marked them out as curious men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And here( unfortunately in French ,so I do apologise in advance to non-French speakers amongst us, but the pictures are very illuminating will give you a good idea of what Im trying to convey) is a fabulous website about\u00a0Cabinets of Curisoities<\/a>. Look at the corals, the cameos etc displayed in these pictures: they are the type of items JA describes above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This fits in\nwith what we know of Donwell Abbey. From its name we can assume that it was\nonce a monastic institution, and therefore could have become part of the\nKnightley family property after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the\n1530s. We know that the Knightley family are the first in consequence in the\narea, and have been for years:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nvery want of such equality might prevent his perception of it; but he must know\nthat in fortune and consequence she was greatly his superior. He must know that\nthe Woodhouses had been settled for several generations at Hartfield, the\nyounger branch of a very ancient family — and that the Eltons were nobody. The\nlanded property of Hartfield certainly was inconsiderable, being but a sort of\nnotch in the Donwell Abbey estate, to which all the rest of Highbury belonged;\nbut their fortune, from other sources, was such as to make them scarcely\nsecondary to Donwell Abbey itself, in every other kind of consequence; I think the\nitems have been collected by lots of Knightleys over the years.But not\nnecessarily Mr Knightley, for I agree with Rachel below that it is unlikely he\ntoured Europe due to the wars. JAs brother Edward\nhad two grand tours,but he was ten years older than Geroge Knightley,and so\njust made it in time \ud83d\ude09 And I don’t think they are looking at sketches made by\nprevious Knightleys, but books of engravings of views of Switzerland and\nVenice,as the quote above tells us \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n The collection\nMr Knightley displays for his friend’s amusement is yet another subtle clue\ngiven to us about the status, longevity and cultured nature of Mr Knightley’s\nfamily,IMHO..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The items provided for Mr Woodhouse’s amusement were probably part of the Knightley family’s art collection-a collection or cabinet of curiosities amassed over a long period of time: Mr. Knightley had done all in his power for Mr. Woodhouse’s entertainment. … Continue reading
\nChapter 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n