Mr. Heywood is the master of an estate called Willingden[1] in Sussex. He and his wife Mrs. Heywood married young, and because they had fourteen children, they cannot afford to travel much and therefore rarely do, except when Mr. Heywood goes to London twice a year to receive his dividends. When Sanditon opens, he is fifty-seven years old, and his oldest son is thirty-one.
He is with his haymakers when there is a carriage accident on the road, and he and several of them go out to help Mr. Parker, who came to Willingden to hire a surgeon and ended up spraining his ankle. Mr. Heywood explains to him he went to the wrong Willingden and there is no surgeon there. When Mr. Parker looked as if he would continue his journey even on a sprained ankle, Mr. Heywood entreated the Parkers to stay at Willingden. The Parkers ended up staying with them for a fortnight, and in gratitude, they invited the oldest Miss Heywood at home, twenty-two year old Charlotte Heywood, to come stay with them.[2]
Notes and references[]
All citations about the book are taken from the Penguin Classics edition (2003), an anthology of Jane Austen's lesser known or unfinished works such as Lady Susan, The Watsons, and Sanditon.