Jane Austen Day
On Saturday, July 26 at Rose Hill Mansion step into Jane Austen’s world and experience a taste of early 19th-century life in the Finger Lakes region. Throughout the day, participants can encounter War of 1812 re-enactors, hear gallery talks about the ritual of tea or the Rose Family, try writing with a quill pen, and sample period foods in the Rose Hill kitchen. At 11:30 a.m. Master Gardner John Fouracre will explore gardening in Regency England as seen through the novels and letters of Jane Austen, and at 1 p.m. the Country Dancers of Rochester will give demonstrations of English Country Dancing accompanied by live music of the period. There will be period clothing, needlework, and tea services on display in the house. The public is encouraged to enter the period picnic contest and to come dressed in Regency fashions.
Jane Austen Day runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission to the event is $5 per person and includes entrance to the mansion. The event is free for members of the Geneva Historical Society. For more information about Jane Austen Day call the Geneva Historical Society at 315-789-5151
For information on the picnic contest, see our Picnic Guidelines. For picnic ideas and more on Geneva in Jane Austen’s time see our Rose Hill Mansion Facebook Page at http://bit.ly/RoseHillFB and our blog at http://bit.ly/104jPCE. In addition to checking your local library for resources, historic cookbooks can be found online at Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project, Google Books, and the Internet Archive. The Food History Timeline is also an excellent resource for food research.
Rose Hill Mansion is located at 3373 Route 96A, about a mile south of Routes 5&20, near Geneva, New York. Rose Hill is administered by the Geneva Historical Society at 543 South Main Street, Geneva, New York.
Photo of the Country Dancers of Rochester by Lisa Brown.