Mrs Elton was a little
shocked at the want of two drawing rooms, at the poor attempt at
rout cakes, and there being no ice in the Highbury
card parties. (Jane Austen, Emma)
Mrs Elton is one of Jane Austen's dislikeable
female characters. She arrives half-way
through the novel as the new wife of the vicar of Highbury, Mr Elton. Mortified to have been rejected by the
novel's protagonist Emma Woodhouse, and offended that she had been trying to
create a match between him and her friend, Harriet Smith, of dubious social
origins, Mr Elton leaves Highbury for Bath.
When he returns he is engaged and, as he makes clear to his parishioners
- knowing that the gossip will spread and reach the ears of the woman who has
turned him down - 'he had not thrown himself away - he had gained a woman of
10,000 pounds or thereabouts'.
Emma is far from impressed by Mrs Elton when she
arrives in Highbury, considering her no more than 'good enough for Mr Elton ...
accomplished enough for Highbury - handsome enough - to look plain... by
Harriet's side.' Despite the £10,000,
she has 'no name, no blood, no alliance', and simply basks in the reflected
glory of an elder sister 'who was very well married, to a gentleman
...who kept two carriages!'
Illustration by Hugh Thomson (1860-1920) from 1915 edition of Emma
Mrs Elton enters Highbury society like a
whirlwind: she name-drops at any opportunity, annoys Emma by claiming a
familiarity with Mr Knightley - whom she
insists on referring to as 'Knightley' - and when she discovers the social
failings of Highbury determines to put things to rights:
Mrs
Bates, Mrs Perry, Mrs Goddard and others, were a good deal behind hand in knowledge of the world, but [Mrs
Elton] would soon show them how everything ought to be arranged.
Amongst Mrs Elton's criticisms is the quality of
the 'rout cakes'. Rout cakes are very
small rich cakes containing brandy and dried fruit that were made for evening
parties (routs). They are also mentioned
in William Makepeace Thackeray's satirical novel, Vanity Fair
(1847-48). Joseph Sedley, the obese and
shy older brother of Amelia Sedley, the naive heroine and friend of its
anti-heroine, Becky Sharp, gorges on rout-cakes at a party:
Joseph
Sedley contented himself with a bottle of claret besides his Madeira at dinner,
and he managed a couple of plates full of
strawberries and cream, and twenty-four little rout
cakes that were lying neglected in a plate near him.
Recipe next time, for those of you wanting to
stuff yourself like Joseph....
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