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In an old, plain-faced Parsonage, huddled down out of the wind, in a grassy valley near to what we now know as the Basingstoke complex, Jane Austen was born. Perhaps, sometimes, in the clear golden light of an Autumn evening, it might still be possible to picture this very old-fashioned Rectory, with its lovely large garden, the lawns where the daffodils blew, standing in fields with elm trees, where the rooks would caw, a little way off the road between the village of Steventon and the Church, about ten miles south-west of Basingstoke. One might still picture the porch of the Vicarage, covered with pale Honeysuckle, fragrant roses peering in at the large windows and in the Spring, swallows fluttering under the tiled roof and the eaves of the dormer windows. Here little Jane grew up with her five elder brothers, James, George, Edward, Henry and Frank, her only sister, Cassandra, and her younger brother Charles. Eight children altogether. Jane Austen was born in 1775 and died in 1817 aged 42 years of a fever-related disease. At one time, she was often in the company of one Thomas Lefroy, a handsome young Irishman whose Uncle was a Vicar. This was in December 1795, when Jane was just 21 years old, but nothing came of the romance, and Thomas later moved away. Jane and her sister Cassandra went to stay in Bath with their Uncle and Aunt, who owned a large house at No.1, The Paragon. The sisters returned to their Father's Vicarage after a short stay, but it was during this time that Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, also Northanger Abbey. When Jane's Father was 70 years old, it was decided that he should retire from his Ministry, and that his family should move permanently to Bath. They rented a property here at No.4, Sydney Place for 3 years. After this Lease had expired, Jane and her sister moved to Southampton and then to another rented house in Lyme Regis. It was at Chawton Cottage, however, that Jane Austen's novels were to become famous. She made £450 (a lot of money in those days) out of Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility. Emma appeared in time for Christmas 1816, and first appeared in three volumes, priced at a guinea a copy. These are now rare, and extremely valuable. Of the houses in which Miss Austen lived, Steventon Rectory where she was born was pulled down in 1833, and the Southampton house, and her supposed Lodging House at Lyme Regis, have both vanished. Bath is much as she knew it, and we can still visit and enjoy it at the present time. The Jane Austen Society has preserved and reclaimed Chawton Cottage, which is situated between West Meon and Alton, and this is still standing, and can be visited during a very pleasant drive through the Hampshire countryside, on a fine and sunny afternoon. Cream Teas are available in the charming Ye Olde Englishe Tea Shoppe, very close by. Rosemary Goulding |
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page last updated 1 JULY 2000 |
