Ever since it was saved from wrack and ruin by a heroic philanthropist in the 1940s, the pretty red-brick cottage in Chawton where Jane Austen spent the last eight years of her life has been a place of pilgrimage for her devoted readers. For within its modest walls she wrote or revised all six of her published novels, working on the tiny, 12-sided walnut table in the dining room, reading the finished products aloud to family and neighbours in the drawing room, and revelling in being a ‘Hampshire-born Austen’ come home to the countryside after years hopping between city lodgings.
The spirit of the author resounds as you tread its creaking floorboards, taking in the string of her treasured possessions and surviving letters now in the hands of the house…
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Britain (Digital) - 1 Issue, Mar/Apr 2025