Jane Austen wrote six novels during her
short life but 250 years on the world is still fascinated by her witty satirical
books, selling over 20 million copies with adaptations into box office movie hits
and even featuring on the current £10 note. Let's retrace her steps and visit some of the
wonderful places Jane visited or called home. Jane was born here in the peaceful sleepy village
of Steventon, Hampshire. One of eight children to George and Cassandra Austen. Jane arrived just
before Christmas on the 16th of December 1775. The rectory where she started her life was at the
bottom of a small hill near the Steventon church. It has long since been demolished. You can
roughly see where they think it was positioned on the corner of a field where a water well is
sited, boxed in by wooden fencing. There are no signs or ways of entering this private land.
You can catch a glimpse through the hedge. Behind me is Saint Nicholas church and
this is where her father was rector and Jane would have come here regularly as a child. George was rector thanks to his
wealthy distant cousin Thomas Knight, he owned the Steventon estate and gave George
his position. His son Thomas Knight II would play a pivotal role in the lives of Jane
and her brother Edward later in their lives. I'm not sure if it's open we'll
see if we can get in. It is! Come on in. The Anglican church dates from 1200
and has changed little through the centuries. Jane was baptized here and two of her brothers James
and Henry were also rector following in their father's footsteps, even the son of her brother
Edward William Knight was rector for 50 years. A plaque remembering their most
famous parishioner was added in 1936 by the great-granddaughter
of James, Emma Austen Leigh. You will also see memorial
plaques for James his two wives and also William Knight who succeeded
him as rector. Both are buried next to each other in the cemetery to the right,
as you look at the rear of the church. Apparently when Jane would come here to church
she would alter the marriage registers and scribble in her name and a fictitious name of
somebody that she wanted to marry, which was quite charming. The Digweed family was an important
local parishioner and friends of the Austen's. There is a floor memorial in between the two
front pews where they would have sat each Sunday. In the centre of the village is what, at first
glance looks like a normal vintage red phone box. So like a beacon to anybody that loves Jane Austen in the town of Steventon they have a telephone
box that's been converted into a little book library and it also has the name of Jane
above the telephone box, which is pretty cool. So the villagers share their books with each
other and anybody that wants to borrow one. If you're expecting to see lots of really
cute thatched cottage properties and maybe big stately homes in Steventon then you're
not going to find that here. It's quite a charming place but it is very small and there's not really
much going on other than what we've shown you, so please don't come here with high expectations
that you'll see something special. I mean obviously is the birthplace of Jane
Austen which is very special in its own right but there are other places that we're going
to visit that are far more picturesque. Beautiful house, so I think this was where
the Harwoods lived I think this is Deane house possibly I could be wrong but the Austen's would
have visited here loads of times. Beautiful place and it's right next to the church. Deane is just a
mile up the road from Steventon and it's somewhere Jane would visit often as she had close friends
their Mary and Martha Lloyd. Deane House was indeed owned by the Harwood family, close friends
of the Austen's and where Jane danced and flirted with Tom Lefroy more friends of the family. It's
now a private home but a path leads past the house linking to All Saints church that George
Austen was also rector of from 1773. Jane spent the first 25 years of her life in
Steventon but in 1801 her father retired and as Jane and Cassandra were still unmarried they had
no choice but to move with their parents to Bath. The Georgian city of Bath. In the early 1800s
gentry, the wealthy and hangers on flocked here for social events, dancing and as health tourists
looking for cures to ailments by drinking the mineral-rich spa waters. Jane and Cassandra whilst
apprehensive surely would have been excited about the prospect of living here. Jane had experienced
Bath a few years before the family were to move there permanently. Her Aunt and Uncle owned this
city residence number one the paragon and in 1797 Jane stayed with them. The property wasn't
much to her liking as reflected in her letters. In 1799 Edward, her brother, a lover of red wine
was suffering from a painful case of gout. Well, what better place to find a cure than at the
famous pump room. Bath was a place to be seen and party and it was also fast becoming a health
tourist destination. Jane, her mother, Edward and his wife arrived to sample the mineral-rich
spa waters in a hope of alleviating his pain. This experience, some think assisted in the
completion of her first novel Northangar Abbey. Catherine Moreland accompanies a wealthy family
friend to take the waters in the pump room. They spent six weeks lodging here at 13 Queen
Square from where Jane wrote many a letter to her sister Cassandra expressing her pleasure at
the lodgings Edward and his family had provided. Preparing to leave Steventon forever in 1801 they
sought out appropriate accommodation in Bath. 4 Sydney Place would do just fine, slightly
further from the centre of the city but more affordable and at £150 a year rent, perfect
for their family relocating from Hampshire. From the upstairs window Jane could look out onto
Sydney Gardens, an oasis of calm and tranquillity by day in the hectic city, but fun and
thrilling at night with grand firework displays, acrobats, dancing and concerts. Could
this really be the place she could write? Sydney Gardens was open to anyone
that could afford the entrance fee. The labyrinths were a particular source
of fun for Jane in Sydney Gardens. Described as nearly twice as large as
the gardens of Hampton Court. In reality, she couldn't write te here. The distractions
of socializing, dancing and parties meant that Jane only managed to write a few thousand words
of a novel called The Watson's whilst in Bath. She later discarded it, possibly following the
death of her father, we'll never really know. We know through her letters that Jane
never really settled or liked life in Bath, having said that two of her novels feature
it heavily. This is the gravel walk running along the back gardens of the Circus and
Brock Street and features in Persuasion, still a peaceful place to walk and where you can
find a small secret garden open to the public. Jane was known to walk here and then
onto the impressive Royal Crescent, one of Bath's most famous locations to this day. For parties, socializing and dancing the Assembly
Rooms were a place she would have been seen. Sadly we cannot go inside today due to a special
event but this impressive place is worth visiting. The family would spend three years at
Sydney Place. In mid-1804 the lease was up, they didn't renew possibly due to money worries.
The search started again for a new home. Green Park building had been on their list
when they originally looked in Bath but rejected it as unsuitable. Now a cheaper
rental it became their home at number 27. It wouldn't be a happy time as tragedy
hit the family within three months. George suddenly became ill and died within hours,
he's buried here in the rebuilt St Swithin's church crypt where he married Cassandra Leigh.
This is his now virtually illegible tombstone. Without George's pension, they needed to
economise. The family was on the move again leaving behind the pain of Green Park. We're now in Gay Street, number 25 to be exact.
Just up the road from the Jane Austen centre. Within two months of their father's death and with
a family friend now in tow they rented rooms here. Martha Lloyd, a childhood friend from Deane
joined the family when her mother also died shortly after George. This allowed them to pool
their finances and obtain better accommodation, even then they can only afford to rent rooms not
a whole house. We should also remember that Jane remained an unpublished writer during her time in
Bath so relied on other family members like her brothers for financial support. Nevertheless,
after a year they again needed cheaper accommodation and a letter mentions this and a
reference to not living in dingy Trim Street. Trim Street would have been the
last place they wanted to end up, but by early 1806 that's exactly where they
were, right here. It's a pretty pokey back street to this day and we don't have a
record of which house they had rooms in. After six months Francis Austen, Jane's brother
recently married with a successful career in the navy, suggested to Mrs Austen and family that
they relocated to Southampton. They jumped at the chance and with that left Trim Street and
Bath behind them forever, never to return. Jane nearly died in Southampton at the age
of seven. A boarding school she attended in Oxford relocated there and soon after a typhus
outbreak caused her to be very ill and almost die. They rented lodgings for a few months before
moving in with Francis here at Castle Square. The house has long gone but this pub sits
on the exact footprint of the property. There is a Jane Austen walk around the
city and you'll see more plaques like this. Southampton was bombed heavily in World War II, so
many places no longer exist. This is the Bargate and entrance to the medieval city. A plaque here
mentions Jane's first visit and the school nearby. On the corner of East Street is
where All Saints church was located and Jane worshipped here . This
was destroyed in the blitz. The Arundel Circus, now a large shopping
centre is where the botanical gardens and the spa fountain were located.
They walked here almost daily, unfortunately, we couldn't find
the plaque at this location. On French Street just past the medieval
merchant's house was the location of the Theatre Royal, the Austen's visited on the
14th of September 1807 to see two plays. There are more plaques than we'll show you
from the walk but one building Jane visited is still visible today in the high street. The
Dolphin Hotel, it is said she danced here on her 18th birthday in 1793 and then returned in the
winter of 1808 for two more social occasions. Two and a half years on and Francis had a
huge family, so in 1809 things were becoming a little awkward around the home. It was
time to get help from another family member. Jane's brother Edward came to the rescue offering
the family one of two homes. A cottage on his Godmersham estate in Kent or one here close
to his manor. Having loved Hampshire life and where Jane was at her best they picked this modest
unassuming home in the idyllic village of Chawton. Edward had been adopted by the wealthy cousins
of George Austen in his early life Thomas Knight II and his wife Elizabeth he inherited Chawton
House, just up the road from the cottage and changed his name. When Edward and his family were
in residence jane would have strolled excitedly up this path to the house and it's where she would
have gained great inspiration for her novels. Jane's sister Cassandra and her
mother are buried in the grounds. If you'd like to see a more in-depth video
on Chawton House, how Edward became heir and more about Jane's life in this property
then watch our tour coming in two weeks time. Jane, Cassandra, her mother and Martha
Lloyd moved in on the 7th of July 1809. She was back in her beloved Hampshire and it's
where her writing would take off again. Martha and Cassandra would do most of the chores so Jane
could secretly and quietly write from the window in the dining room. The famous writing desk where
she wrote all six novels is here in the house. If you would like to see a full tour of her house
we have recorded a more in-depth video showing more of the artefacts, possessions and a room by
room tour. This video is coming next week. We'll put a link at the end of the video and of course,
you can subscribe to be notified when it's live. The countryside inspired writing again and
with the help of her brother Henry she had a publisher interested in Sense and Sensibility.
A year later in October 1811 it was published but not in her name the author was listed
as "by a lady", keeping Jane anonymous. More would follow with Pride and Prejudice
reworked and published, and within a few years, Mansfield Park and Emma were published
with Persuasion being completed. Still no one knew who Jane Austen was. By early 1817
Jane was working on her seventh novel Sanditon but she was in a bad way, catching a fever on
the 18th of March that halted her work. In fact, she'd never right again! Cassandra rushed her in
a carriage here to Winchester some 16 miles from Chawton, into the care of Giles Linford a local
physician at the newly opened Winchester hospital. These are the lodgings at eight college street
that Cassandra organized for Jane and herself. Her illness rapidly worsened, it's believed she
was suffering from Addison's or Hodgkin's disease and more recently even lupus. She died in
the house in Cassandra's arms aged just 41 in the early hours of the 18th of July 1817. Cassandra wrote to her niece Fanny Knight that
the coffin passed by the bay window on the 24th of July and Jane disappeared out of sight forever.
Women didn't attend funerals in those days. The coffin passed down College Street then
right under King's Gate into Dome Alley. Right again under the portal into the Inner close.
Four Austen men walked with the coffin. Edward, Henry, Francis and James's son,
as James was too ill to attend. The funeral took place in Winchester
Cathedral the only theory as to why here is that it was arranged by her brother
Henry as he knew the bishop and deacon. Her memorial stone makes no mention of her
writing but this was corrected in 1870 when her nephew used the money he made from his biography
about Jane to add this copper memorial plate. Above that is a memorial window
added in 1900 by public donation. Jane was arguably one of the greatest British
novelists of all time and it seems fitting that, in the end she got the recognition she
deserved and is laid to rest in such a wonderful setting where people from around
the world travel daily to pay their respects. For more on Jane Austen tune in next
week when we take you on a full room by room tour of her Chawton home. Subscribe
now to be notified by clicking that bell. Thanks for watching and we'll see
you again soon on the memoryseekers.
