Nestled in the Hampshire countryside, a modestly sized but unassuming house sits on a main road going through the village of Chawton. The village itself is as picturesque as most small English parishes come, but it’s the house covered in commemorative plaques which draws the eye. This is the house which was once inhabited by one of the world’s most celebrated authors – Jane Austen.
It’s difficult, as you drive down Winchester road, not to picture Jane walking along in her own day. She was extremely fond of the Hampshire countryside having spent the first 25 years of her life in nearby Steventon. City life apparently was not very conducive to Jane’s literary output; after moving to Bath and then Southampton after the death of her father, it was her return to the countryside that fuelled what is known as a great creative period in her life, a time in which all 5 of her novels were worked on and published. I was therefore extremely excited to see what visiting Jane’s beloved Chawton cottage would reveal to me about both the author and her work.
Socially Inclined
Aside from the kitchen, which must be entered from outside the house, the first room you will enter at Chawton is the Drawing Room. There are many beautiful objects in the main living area of the cottage, but possibly the most eye-catching piece in this room today is the piano which sits quietly in the corner. Jane was incredibly excited about the prospect of once again having her own piano when the Austen’s moved into Chawton, writing in a letter to Cassandra:
“Yes, yes, we will have a pianoforte, as good as one can be got for thirty guineas, and I will practice country dances, that we may have some amusement for our nephews and nieces, when we have the pleasure of their company.”
While writers are often stereotyped as reclusive and even socially distant, the main room of Chawton paints quite a different picture of Jane, one where you can almost see her sitting comfortably on the long couch entertaining guests, or indeed playing the piano for them to “have some amusement”. It’s an attitude which is reflective of her books too – her love of society, parties and people shines through in the various social functions that take place in each novel. Whether it’s debutante balls or strolls around the grounds of fine country houses with friends – visitors and visitation were an important aspect of Jane’s life, as well as those of her heroines.
A House in the Country
Though Jane’s house is far from underwhelming, in terms of actual size it was much smaller than I had expected. I hadn’t exactly pictured anything akin to the countryside mansions of Pemberley or Mansfield Park, yet not even the more modest house of the Bennet’s is quite comparable to Jane’s actual home. In fact, everything feels significantly compact and imperfect: the wooden floors are ever so wonky, the staircase to the second floor is tight and winding, and the whole place is so much more homely and charming for it. The worn floors are a product of the passage of time, of Jane’s very own footsteps treading the boards of a home she loved dearly. The staircase is narrow, but see if you can stop yourself from pausing at the window half-way up which overlooks the garden, bathing that side of the house in warm light.
These little blemishes become even more pronounced when visiting Chawton House just up the road; the country house inherited by Jane’s brother Edward, which Jane would have visited frequently, is undeniably beautiful. It is also extremely grand – everything is on a large scale, as is appropriate to the size of the house, swapping the cosy little dining table in Jane’s home for one which stretches across the room, and swapping the warm sunlit stairwells for sweeping staircases that feed into dramatic, darkened, painting lined hallways. In short, Chawton Cottage is lovely because of its flaws, not despite them, because they are flaws which Jane herself would have known and loved in her lifetime.
Even the current wallpaper, a reproduction of the original that lined the walls, has been faithfully recreated with errors and all, for the Austens had seemingly gone with a cheaper wallpaper that had printing mistakes in the pattern. The cottage, as a result, has remained as it was: remote and homely, a place that granted great creative and physical freedom to a self proclaimed ‘old maid’ living a quiet but happy existence in the country. The restorative properties of rural England are frequently heralded in both real life and fiction, and it becomes plain why characters such as Elizabeth Bennet are often seen rambling through the countryside or enjoying simple domestic pleasures, when their creator clearly had a life consisting of both too.
Walking Down Memory Lane
In fact, there is as much outside the cottage that is suggestive about Jane’s mentality and lifestyle. The garden, for one, which would have been much bigger in her time, is still full of the flowers, herbs and strawberries she tended herself. It is still a lovely place to have a moment of reflection. And so is the route which stretches the fields between Chawton cottage and grand Chawton House just up the road. Jane is known to have greatly enjoyed walking to the “main house”, as it was known then, and on a warm spring day it is easy to see why. The cottage, garden and pretty bit of surrounding country is a significant contrast to the splendour of Chawton house, where Jane frequently visited Edward Austen, and her niece Fanny Knight. The large dining room is very reminiscent of famous scenes from Austen novels, of heroine’s who are just a little out of place in similar environments – whether it’s Elizabeth Darcy visiting the stately home of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, or Fanny Price living as something of an outsider in the home of her aunt and uncle at Mansield Park. Of course there isn’t anything to suggest Jane would have felt out of place or resented her brother’s inherited home (by all accounts she truly enjoyed visiting), but there is still such a contrast between the two locations, just a stones throw apart, that it becomes even more apparent why Jane must have felt much more inclined to write at Chawton. It was a point when her life was full of simple but satisfying pleasures, especially in contrast to the over stimulation that a city like Bath would have presented.
Concluding Thoughts
In many ways, Jane’s cottage is exactly what you might picture – cosy, bright and full of history – and it might be easy to slip into feeling reverent of her home, as a kind of literary holy place where some of the greatest novels in English were written. Yet at the same time, there is a simplicity in its small, unpretentious layout that I think most reflects Jane as a person – humble yet shrewd. If you have the chance to visit Chawton Cottage, it’s well worth a visit. Whether you have read the books or not, you can expect to be taken in by the beautiful scenery, and to leave with a better sense of Jane, not as one of the titans of the literary world, but as an actual person.
Have you visited Chawton Cottage, or any of Jane’s other homes? Let me know in the comments below!
