Austen to Austen, Dust to Dust
Monday, December 1st, 2008
You know you’ve really made it as an author when fans start leaving their ashes in the gardens surrounding your museum.
News sites are reporting that the Jane Austen House Museum is so distressed by people leaving the ashes of loved ones in their garden, they’ve written to fans of the author asking them to stop.
Says the museum’s collections manager Louise West: “While we understand many admirers of Jane Austen would love to have ashes laid here, it is something we do not allow. It is distressing for visitors to see mounds of human ash, particularly so for our gardener. On three or four occasions, our gardener Celia Simpson has found piles of human ash placed in the garden secretly.”
Wonder if anyone was cremated with a copy of Pride and Prejudice?
Photo: Mark Hillary
