Hampshire is located in
south central England, southwest of London,
and extends all the way to the south coast.
Chawton
From 1809 until shortly before her death, Jane Austen lived with her sister Cassandra and their mother in a small cottage in the village of Chawton. It was here that she wrote Emma, Mansfield Park, and Persuasion. The house was purchased and turned into a museum in the 1940s, and contains much Austen memorabilia of all sorts.
The front of the house. The window on the left was bricked up at the desire of the Austen family to provide greater privacy for their drawing room. The right-most window on the ground floor belongs to the breakfast room, where Jane did much of her writing. Her bedroom faces the back of the house.
The side of the house, and current entrance to the museum.
Jane's garden.
The breakfast room. The round table-top is thought to belong to the "three-legged table" on which Jane wrote her novels (the stand is a later addition).
The Austens' breakfast table, with a china service that belonged to the family.
The notorious creaking door, which according to tradition was purposely left unoiled so that Jane could hide her writing if anyone came into the room.
The tiny bedroom (albeit larger than my Archway box) that Jane shared with her sister Cassandra.
The tub on the left is for laundry; the opening on the right is where the Austens baked their bread.
The Austens couldn't afford a proper carriage, but Jane's brother gave her this donkey cart which she used to visit her friends in the area.
The manor house to which the cottage was attached. Jane's brother Edward was adopted by their wealthy but childless relations the Knights, from whom he inherited multiple estates, including this one. It is still a private residence.
Winchester
Shortly before her death, Jane Austen came to Winchester to seek medical treatment. She stayed in this house just outside the cathedral close, and it was here that she died in 1817 at the age of 41. It is now a private residence (as a sign in the window hastily informs any overly curious visitor)...I'm not sure if I envy the people who live there or find the whole situation a bit odd. I know that nearly every house built in the nineteenth century had someone die in it at some point, but the fact that it's Jane Austen seems to make it somewhat different, at least to a literary fangirl like myself.
One of the gates to the Cathedral Close.
Winchester Cathedral, from the side...
...and the front. Jane Austen's grave is located in the left aisle. Her epitaph reads: "In Memory of Jane Austen, youngest daughter of the late Revd. George Austen, formerly rector of Steventon in this County. She departed this Life on the 18th of July 1817, aged 41, after a long illness supported with the patience and the hopes of a Christian. The benevolence of her heart, the sweetness of her temper, and the extraordinary endowments of her mind obtained the regard of all who knew her, and the warmest love of her intimate connections. Their grief is in proportion to their affection. They know their loss to be irreparable, but in their deepest affliction they are consoled by a firm though humble hope that her charity, devotion, faith and purity have rendered her soul acceptable in the sight of her Redeemer." King Canute (d. 1035) is also buried here; his coffin along with those of other dignitaries is balanced on the top of the screens separating the central nave from the side aisles. The medieval Great Screen was destroyed during the Reformation and restored in 1890, leading to a statue of Queen Victoria turning up among the Church Fathers.
The Great Hall, the only surviving part of a castle complex begun by William the Conqueror in 1067. The hall was used as a government building more or less continuously from its construction until 1978. Its most recent use was as a law court; to enter the building, one goes through typically faceless contemporary law offices, and suddenly at the bottom of a beige-carpeted staircase there's a stone archway leading to this huge medieval hall (which archway, incidentally, is thought to have at some point led to Eleanor of Aquitaine's personal chambers, for anyone else who has fond memories of E. L. Konigsburg's A Proud Taste of Scarlet and Miniver).
Another view of the Great Hall.
A six-hundred-year-old representation of King Arthur's Round Table, once thought to be the real thing.
A replica of a medieval garden located just outside the Great Hall.
A view of Winchester from the top of the medieval gateway to the city.
