In the footsteps of Jane Austen in Hampshire
While literary pilgrims from all corners of the globe know where to come in search of “Jane Austen Country”, visitors to Hampshire these days find it very easy to follow in the footsteps of the author who brought us the likes of Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey and Sense & Sensibility.
A good starting place is Jane Austen's House Museum in the quiet village of Chawton. It was here that Austen wrote and revised six of her most famous novels - four of which were subsequently published while she was living in this house.
This was Austen’s last home, where she lived with her mother and her sister Cassandra from 1809 to 1817 - and where the hairs will rise on the back of your neck when you see the little table where she revised her manuscripts for Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice and Northanger Abbey, and wrote Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion.
With the possible exception of Steventon - where she was born and grew up - Chawton was the place where Austen found most peace and security. Today, Jane Austen’s House Museum and gardens retain much of that same atmosphere; and it the ideal starting point for anyone wanting to find out more about Jane Austen and her books, as well as her family and the life-and-times in which she lived.
Visit it on a sunny day, and the sunshine streams through the windows at the front of a house widely regarded as Austen’s literary home.
Elsewhere in the village Chawton House Library (above) has become an internationally respected research and learning centre for the study of early women’s writing from 1600 to 1830. Set in the manor house that once belonged to Austen’s brother, Edward, the library, house and gardens are also open to the general public.
