The room in which she stayed (leftmost window on the 1st floor, overlooking Matlock Street) has the following notice posted outside.
"In this room in the year 1811 Jane Austen revised the manuscript of her famous book "Pride and Prejudice". It had been written in 1797, but Jane Austen, who travelled in Derbyshire in 1811, chose to introduce the beauty spots of the Peak into her novel. The Rutland Arms Hotel was built in 1804, and while staying in this new and comfortable inn, we have reason to believe that Miss Austen visited Chatsworth, only three miles away, and was so impressed by its beauty and grandeur, that she makes it the background for "Pemberley", the home of the proud and handsome Mr. Darcy, hero of "Pride and Prejudice".
The small market town of "Lambton", mentioned in the novel, is easily identifiable as Bakewell, and any visitor, driving thence to Chatsworth, must immediately be struck by Miss Austen's faithful portrayal of the scene - the "large handsome stone building, standing well on rising ground and backed by a ridge of woody hills." There it is today, exactly as Jane Austen saw it, all those long years ago.
Elizabeth Bennet, heroine of the story, had returned to the inn to dress for dinner, when the sound of a carriage drew her to the window. She saw a curricle driving up the street, undoubtedly Matlock Street which these windows overlook, and presently she heard a quick foot upon the stair - the very staircase outside this door.
So, while visiting this hotel and staying in this room, remember that it is the scene of two of the most romantic passages in "Pride and Prejudice", and "Pride and Prejudice" must surely take its place among the most famous novels in the English language." derbyshire heritage
The above article is so full of inaccuracies it is hard to know where to start. Jane Austen did not visit Bakewell or Derbyshire in 1811 so it would have been impossible for her to stay at the Rutland Arms Hotel. At this time the novel Pride and Prejudice was being revised in London at the house of her cousin Eliza de Feuillide. The small market town of Lambton in the novel is not easily identifiable as Bakewell, as Bakewell at this time was not a small market town but a large industrial town with a large cotton spinning mill. As Nicholas Ennos shows in his recently published biography "Jane Austen - a New Revelation" the small market town of Lambton was based on the real town of Old Brampton. He also shows that the author visited Bakewell and Old Brampton in 1794, the year in which the original version of Pride and Prejudice was set. However, she could not have stayed at the Rutland Arms Hotel in 1794 as it had not yet been built.
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