Life often throws out fun coincidences. Only last year, I realised I was born on the 150th anniversary of the publication of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.
Another bit of Austen serendipity struck recently while researching for my next Charlotte Collins mystery…
Belton House in Lincolnshire, UK, played the role of Rosings Park in the 1995 TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Exploring the estate online revealed it was built by the Brownlow family in the late 17th century.
Nor do the coincidences stop there.
I was also born within shouting distance of that very estate (well, a few miles up the road in Nottingham). Given the shared geography and family name, I’m forced to conclude I may be somehow related to the former owners of the house*.
With a little stretch of the imagination, all this implies a potential familial connection to that most elegant and condescending of patrons, Lady Catherine de Bourgh!
As the good lady herself might say:
Are the shades of Rosings to be thus polluted?
*But probably not.
Teresa Broderick says
I love it :):) Blue blood definitely running through you Mark!!
Mark says
I await a call from the National Trust…