“Chawton village, a dozy place that was startled into attention several times a day by the clatter of rapid coach traffic through its centre, stood where three roads met: to the north, Alton and London; to the south, Winchester if you followed one fork, Gosport along the other.

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The Austens’ cottage was on the corner of the divide, so close to the road that the beds in the front rooms upstairs were sometimes shaken by the six-horse coaches that thundered past. Slower carriages allowed curious passengers to see into the rooms. “I heard of the Chawton Party looking very comfortable at Breakfast, from a gentleman who was travelling by their door in a Post-chaise,” Mrs Knight (Jane’s sister-in-law) wrote to Fanny (her daughter, and Jane’s niece). 

Jane liked to look out at the village street, and often looked out the sunny dining-room window where she wrote to enjoy whatever it offered by way of entertainment. She amused herself with the passing traffic: at the start of the Winchester term she observed ‘a countless number of Postchaises full of Boys pass yesterday morning – full of future Heroes, Legislators, Fools and Villains’.” 

Jane Austen: A Life – C. Tomalin

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Grotere kaart weergeven

 

Grotere kaart weergeven


A prolific letter writer Austen left many clues as to the ups and downs of life at Chawton. The following are extracts from letters written in 1809.

“Our Pond is brimfull and our roads are dirty and our walls are damp, and we sit wishing every bad day may be the last”.

“We have had a great deal of fun lately with Postchaises stopping at the door; three times within a few days, we had a couple of agreeable Visitors turn in unexpectedly.”

“Our Chawton home - how much we find

Already in it, to our mind,

And how convinced that when complete

It will all other Houses beat,

That ever have been made or mended,

With rooms concise or rooms distended.”

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