0:00:05 > 0:00:08August 1806.
0:00:08 > 0:00:12Jane Austen found herself squeezed alongside her mother,
0:00:12 > 0:00:17her sister and a lawyer, rushing into Warwickshire in her cousin's carriage.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22It's like a scene from one of Jane's own stories.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24She was full of expectation,
0:00:24 > 0:00:29about to play her part in a real-life Austen family drama.
0:00:30 > 0:00:35Jane's destination was the ancestral home of the Leigh family.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38It was Stoneleigh Abbey.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45It's a story about money and inheritance and marriage -
0:00:45 > 0:00:49the very things at the core of Jane's novels.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54The honourable Mary Leigh, reclusive mistress of the house,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57had just died, unmarried and childless.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01Who was going to get the house and the cash?
0:01:01 > 0:01:02Jane's elderly cousin,
0:01:02 > 0:01:06one of the possible heirs, rushed over to stake his claim,
0:01:06 > 0:01:09bringing the Austens along for support.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12When Jane arrived here, she was 30 years old.
0:01:12 > 0:01:17She was unmarried and unpublished, despite her best efforts.
0:01:17 > 0:01:19And she was homeless.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23She'd just been forced out of the city of Bath through lack of funds.
0:01:23 > 0:01:27She was really hoping that some of the riches of this place would come
0:01:27 > 0:01:28in her direction.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31She needed an inheritance.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35But for Jane, the aspiring novelist,
0:01:35 > 0:01:39Stoneleigh Abbey also promised bounty of another sort -
0:01:39 > 0:01:45inspiration. Fragments of the Abbey made their way into her books.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49In Pride And Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet is shown around Pemberley by
0:01:49 > 0:01:53the housekeeper, just as Jane was shown around Stoneleigh.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58And Mansfield Park gained Stoneleigh Abbey's chapel.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02"The profusion of mahogany and the crimson velvet cushions appearing
0:02:02 > 0:02:06"over the ledge of the family gallery above."
0:02:06 > 0:02:10In the end, Jane went away without an inheritance,
0:02:10 > 0:02:13but Stoneleigh Abbey left its legacy in her work.
0:02:23 > 0:02:28Jane Austen's novels revolve around homes lost and mansions gained,
0:02:28 > 0:02:31the threat of poverty and the promise of wealth.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37And Jane's own life gave her a unique insight.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41In her 41 years, she stayed in many houses.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45At times, she was tantalisingly close to riches.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48At others, a step from destitution.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52I'm going to follow where Jane stayed.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56I'll visit the scenes of her romantic adventures and see where
0:02:56 > 0:03:00she struggled with her social obligations.
0:03:00 > 0:03:04This is the parlour with drawing room where the women would come after dinner.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09I'll try out some home economics, Austen style...
0:03:09 > 0:03:11Amazingly, that does look like real ink.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16..and explore the houses where she flourished as a writer.
0:03:18 > 0:03:23I think that knowing where Jane lived can tell us who Jane really was.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44I'm travelling to where it all began for Jane - Hampshire.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48In 18th-century England,
0:03:48 > 0:03:54your prospects for wealth and security were typically set from the moment
0:03:54 > 0:03:55of your birth.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59But Jane Austen wasn't raised in a typical home.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05Jane spent 25 years,
0:04:05 > 0:04:10more than half of her life, living in the house where she was born.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12Let's go and see what's left of it.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21Jane grew up in the sleepy village of Steventon,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24where her father was rector of the local church.
0:04:26 > 0:04:31She was born in 1775, in the reign of George III.
0:04:34 > 0:04:38The Austens were a bit unusual in that Jane's father was considered to
0:04:38 > 0:04:40be a gentleman
0:04:40 > 0:04:43but the family still struggled on a limited income.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54The Steventon that Jane knew has almost vanished.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Its cottages were demolished in the 19th century.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07Jane's home, the rectory she shared with her parents,
0:05:07 > 0:05:11sister and six brothers has gone, too.
0:05:11 > 0:05:12But luckily for me,
0:05:12 > 0:05:17archaeologist Debbie Charlton has been investigating the site and
0:05:17 > 0:05:21building up a picture of Jane's first home.
0:05:21 > 0:05:22So, Debbie,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26let's pace out the plan of the rectory and find out roughly where it was.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31Right, so we're at the front, which was north-facing.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34So if you were to stay about there...
0:05:34 > 0:05:37- This is the corner of the building? - In the west.- It goes off like that?
0:05:37 > 0:05:40- Yes.- OK, and how far that way does it go?
0:05:40 > 0:05:42I'll just try and walk over there.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50Hey! So that's the other corner?
0:05:50 > 0:05:53- That is, yes.- Where's the front door? Is it in the middle?
0:05:53 > 0:05:54- It's in the middle.- Meet you there.
0:05:54 > 0:05:55OK, then.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02- Is this it?- This is it.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05Let me open it up. Is that right?
0:06:05 > 0:06:07- Yes, indeed.- Let's step inside.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09- In we go.- Where are we now?
0:06:09 > 0:06:13We've come into the lobby. It was a lobby-entry house.
0:06:13 > 0:06:14What were the other rooms?
0:06:14 > 0:06:17You had the front kitchen and then you had the back kitchen.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20The back kitchen's where all the work went on, all the cooking.
0:06:20 > 0:06:22- What about over here?- Over here, you've got the main parlour,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25so you'd have the dining parlour and then the sitting parlour.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28What about Mr Austen's study?
0:06:28 > 0:06:32That was at the back, so he was looking out over the cucumber gardens.
0:06:32 > 0:06:35- Yeah, out over the gardens there. - Is that cos he was hiding away?
0:06:35 > 0:06:38Yeah, he was, he was hiding away from the rest of the household.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40Oh, OK, lots of kids.
0:06:40 > 0:06:41A lot of activity.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43You need somewhere to go if you've got eight children.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47You did. I think it was a very busy house, a lot going on.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55It may seem like a big house, but it was crowded.
0:06:55 > 0:07:00Jane's father supplemented his income by running a boys' boarding school,
0:07:00 > 0:07:04so the rectory was also packed with his pupils.
0:07:04 > 0:07:09Mr Austen even had a third job as a farmer and the family kept cows,
0:07:09 > 0:07:11ducks and chickens.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Debbie, I imagine a lot of people would think of Jane Austen growing up in
0:07:15 > 0:07:18some lovely country house situation, but that's not right, is it?
0:07:18 > 0:07:23No, no, I think she was definitely doing a bit of work on the farm.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27There is an instance where she's overjoyed that the new dairy maids
0:07:27 > 0:07:31arrived, which gives you the impression she was probably having to do it.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33- Until that point?- Yeah.- Ah!
0:07:33 > 0:07:37Tell me about some of these little finds that you've excavated.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40Right, so obviously, when you're doing an excavation,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43- a lot of it is the rubbish - what's been discarded or broken.- Yes.
0:07:43 > 0:07:48So, we've built this back together, but it's a lovely little egg cup.
0:07:48 > 0:07:49Look at that.
0:07:50 > 0:07:54- It's beautiful. - So this is the Willow Pattern.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56- So it's blue and white transferware. - Yes.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00They'd just come out, they'd just learnt to do the transfer print.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04- Everybody who was anybody had to have transferware.- Yes.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07They're from the perfect time, so about 1770.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10Now, Debbie, we don't have any evidence, do we,
0:08:10 > 0:08:13that Jane Austen didn't eat an egg out of this egg cup?
0:08:13 > 0:08:16We don't, no. So she may well have done.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18Jane Austen's egg cup!
0:08:21 > 0:08:24It's pretty, but it's mass produced.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27The Austens may have aspired to the latest tableware,
0:08:27 > 0:08:30but there wasn't that much money for luxuries.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37Jane's letters give a detailed account of everyday life at Steventon Rectory,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40with its unfashionable mealtimes,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43but a wealth of intellectual sustenance.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51We dine now at half after three and have done dinner, I suppose,
0:08:51 > 0:08:53before you begin.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55We drink tea at half after six.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58I'm afraid you will despise us.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01My father reads Cowper to us in the evenings, to which I listen,
0:09:01 > 0:09:02when I can.
0:09:04 > 0:09:09Reading was a big part of life at Steventon, and Jane had free access
0:09:09 > 0:09:13to her father's library, which contained many works of fiction.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17I think that this room set Jane on her path as a writer.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21The books here inspired her.
0:09:21 > 0:09:27From the age of 11, she wrote plays, satires, poems and novels.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31But how could her talent thrive in such a crowded house?
0:09:33 > 0:09:39Jane Austen's father realised that his daughter was becoming a serious writer.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43So he marked this by getting her, as a 19th birthday present,
0:09:43 > 0:09:47this expensive and beautiful mahogany writing desk.
0:09:48 > 0:09:52It hinges open like this so you can write on the slope of it.
0:09:53 > 0:09:59Now, for millions of Jane Austen lovers, this item is a holy relic
0:09:59 > 0:10:04because, under this flap, she would have kept drafts of all of her novels.
0:10:04 > 0:10:09Until the very end of her life, everywhere that Jane Austen went,
0:10:09 > 0:10:10this box went, too.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17Think of it as a tiny little office -
0:10:17 > 0:10:21the only space in her crowded home that Jane had completely to herself.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27But she didn't spend all of her time shut up in the rectory.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30Jane was a keen walker.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33She had to be. For most of her life,
0:10:33 > 0:10:36the Austen family couldn't afford a carriage.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39And she often travelled miles on foot,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43visiting a network of friends in the villages around Steventon.
0:10:43 > 0:10:48Some of their houses still survive, like Ashe Rectory.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Here, Jane would call on her close friend Mrs Anne Lefroy.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02Music was a big part of these women's social lives.
0:11:02 > 0:11:07I'm meeting Professor Jeanice Brooks to learn about Jane Austen,
0:11:07 > 0:11:08the piano player.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13Was music something that girls did together?
0:11:13 > 0:11:18Yeah, there's lots of evidence that young women
0:11:18 > 0:11:21were communicating around and through music,
0:11:21 > 0:11:25in the same way that we think about how teenagers today
0:11:25 > 0:11:30communicate through music and by exchanging music, by swapping things round, by saying,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33hey, listen to this, this is my favourite right now.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37It sounds like we don't know exactly how proficient she was,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41but Jane Austen does strike me as somebody who really loves music.
0:11:41 > 0:11:43- Would you agree?- Yes, yes.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46And I think it's important that, if you look at the novels,
0:11:46 > 0:11:47in all of the novels,
0:11:47 > 0:11:51intelligent conversation is always about music and books.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54It's not just books - it's music and books.
0:11:54 > 0:11:58It's something that she sees as part of a kind of normal,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01cultured education, something that people can talk about,
0:12:01 > 0:12:03something that is important.
0:12:03 > 0:12:08And she seems to, in later life, have played every day for herself.
0:12:08 > 0:12:14It's a thread that weaves right through all of Jane's novels as well.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17There are always characters who play in every single novel,
0:12:17 > 0:12:21there are some very important scenes that happen while people are playing.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28With music came dancing, which Jane also loved.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33Many of her plots centre around the excitement of encounters at balls,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35and Jane felt that thrill herself.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40Deane House, newly built at the time,
0:12:40 > 0:12:44was the scene of one particularly eventful ball for Jane.
0:12:47 > 0:12:52She came here on the night of January 8th, 1796.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54She'd just turned 20.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59And I've got the chance to see inside the very room where Jane danced.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08Now, this might not be the big and glamorous ballroom that you were expecting,
0:13:08 > 0:13:12but it was possible to hold a ball in just an ordinary house.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17You'd push back the furniture and invite around the neighbours for a dance.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20This meant that, when Jane went to balls, she wasn't always meeting
0:13:20 > 0:13:25new people. There were a lot of familiar faces but, one night,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29in this very room, she did meet somebody new.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33He was a young law student called Tom Lefroy.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35He and Jane got on awfully well
0:13:35 > 0:13:38and, pretty soon, they were flirting outrageously.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45Tom was the nephew of Jane's friend Mrs Lefroy.
0:13:46 > 0:13:52Jane's letters to her sister, Cassandra, tell of encounters with Tom
0:13:52 > 0:13:54over the course of a series of balls.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56It all started so promisingly.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03You scold me so much in the nice long letter which I have, this moment,
0:14:03 > 0:14:05received from you
0:14:05 > 0:14:09that I'm almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved.
0:14:09 > 0:14:15Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way
0:14:15 > 0:14:17of dancing and sitting down together.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28After I'd written the above, we received a visit from Mr Tom Lefroy.
0:14:28 > 0:14:34He has but one fault, which time will, I trust, entirely remove.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37It is that his morning coat is a great deal too light.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49I rather expect to receive an offer from my friend in the course of the evening.
0:14:50 > 0:14:51I shall refuse him, however.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55Unless he promises to give away his white coat.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03But Tom's family didn't approve.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07Their serious young lawyer was having way too much fun with Jane.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11At their final ball together, he didn't propose.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16Sometimes, people at balls drank too much,
0:15:16 > 0:15:18even Jane Austen.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21One time, she wrote about a hangover she had
0:15:21 > 0:15:24and the shaking of her hands the morning after.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30And there would be a rude awakening from her romance with Tom Lefroy.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Tom was sent away from Hampshire.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37He had ten siblings - he needed to be able to support them,
0:15:37 > 0:15:40he needed to marry someone richer than Jane.
0:15:43 > 0:15:49The harsh truth was that, in Jane's world, money usually came before love.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54No wonder this became a central theme in her novels.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01And I don't think it's a coincidence that this is the year when Jane
0:16:01 > 0:16:04wrote her first draft of Pride And Prejudice.
0:16:07 > 0:16:08In fiction, at least,
0:16:08 > 0:16:13she could make sure that the poor but clever heroine won both the good man
0:16:13 > 0:16:16and his impressive house and grounds.
0:16:27 > 0:16:32Poor Jane was dogged by worries about money and status,
0:16:32 > 0:16:36even when she visited members of her own family.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42I'm following Jane to Kent to her brother Edward's house,
0:16:42 > 0:16:47where she sometimes stayed for months at a time.
0:16:47 > 0:16:53Now, you might well wonder how Edward ended up with the vast Godmersham Park near Canterbury.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57Well, quite simply, Jane's parents gave Edward away.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03Adopted by the childless but wealthy Knight family,
0:17:03 > 0:17:08Edward enjoyed an income of £15,000 a year.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Even Jane's fictional catch, Mr Darcy, only had 10!
0:17:15 > 0:17:19Life at Godmersham gave Jane a window into a different world.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23I think it had a huge effect on her.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30Now it's a college for opticians.
0:17:30 > 0:17:33But you can still feel its grandeur.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45This might be the very room where Jane stayed when she was at Godmersham -
0:17:45 > 0:17:47a whole room to herself.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51She liked staying here because of the luxury.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55She wrote that she was going to eat ice cream and drink French wine and
0:17:55 > 0:17:57be above vulgar economy.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02But it's quite hard for her, as the poor relation.
0:18:02 > 0:18:06She worried that she couldn't afford to tip the servants properly.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10And Jane's relatives here at Godmersham were very different from her.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12They were hyper-social.
0:18:12 > 0:18:14They were into their outdoor pursuits.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18They thought Jane was clever, but a bit odd.
0:18:18 > 0:18:21I think it's telling that she made one very close friend here who wasn't
0:18:21 > 0:18:23a member of the family.
0:18:23 > 0:18:24It was the governess.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32Jane just wasn't in the same league as her fortunate brother,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35and even the visiting hairdresser seems to have noticed.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45Mr Hall walked off this morning with no inconsiderable booty.
0:18:45 > 0:18:50He charged Elizabeth five shillings for every time of dressing her hair.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Towards me, he was as considerate as I'd hoped for,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59charging me only two shillings sixpence for cutting my hair.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02He certainly respects either our youth or our poverty.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08Jane was expected to earn her keep,
0:19:08 > 0:19:14helping to entertain a growing brood of nieces and nephews.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19One niece recalled spending entire days acting out plays with Aunt Jane.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25Home theatricals were all the rage at the time.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29And Professor Judith Hawley is helping me to put on a play that Jane wrote
0:19:29 > 0:19:31herself as a child.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38Scene the first, a parlour.
0:19:44 > 0:19:45Cousin, your servant.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52Stanly, good morning to you. I hope you slept well last night.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54Er, remarkably well, I thank you.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57I'm afraid you found your bed too short.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59It was bought in my grandmother's time,
0:19:59 > 0:20:01who was herself a very short woman
0:20:01 > 0:20:05and made a point of suiting all her beds to suit her own length.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09Judith, if you lived in a lovely big house in the country like this,
0:20:09 > 0:20:10it must be very nice,
0:20:10 > 0:20:14but do you think perhaps it got boring and you just longed for
0:20:14 > 0:20:15something to happen?
0:20:15 > 0:20:18That's when you could put on a private theatrical, and then you
0:20:18 > 0:20:21had the whole sense of an event to work towards,
0:20:21 > 0:20:23and the whole household could be involved.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26One of the pleasures would just have been that business of the bustle of
0:20:26 > 0:20:29turning a house upside down, rolling back the carpets,
0:20:29 > 0:20:32clearing out all the furniture, that sort of chaotic disruption.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35Do we know what plays Jane Austen wrote herself?
0:20:35 > 0:20:39We've got three surviving manuscripts in her Juvenilia.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42Her second play, which is my favourite, is called The Visit.
0:20:42 > 0:20:43What happens in The Visit?
0:20:43 > 0:20:47In The Visit, there's a brother and sister who invite people to
0:20:47 > 0:20:52their house, only nothing works according to plan.
0:20:52 > 0:20:53They're very apologetic about it,
0:20:53 > 0:20:56but there are only six chairs for eight people
0:20:56 > 0:20:59because Grandmamma didn't really like having people round.
0:20:59 > 0:21:04Sir Arthur and Lady Hampton, Miss Hampton, Mr and Miss Willoughby.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06Ooh, that's a lot of people.
0:21:06 > 0:21:07Here they all come.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12Pray, pray be seated.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18Bless me! There really ought to be eight chairs, but there are but six.
0:21:18 > 0:21:25However, if your Ladyship will take Sir Arthur in your lap and, Sophy,
0:21:25 > 0:21:30my brother in yours, then I believe that we shall do pretty well.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33I beg you'll make no apologies. Um...
0:21:35 > 0:21:38Ooh, Sophy! Oh, yes, please!
0:21:38 > 0:21:40Your brother really is very light.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43This is better than a chair.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45Now, if you've read Mansfield Park by Jane Austen,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48you might think that she doesn't approve of theatricals
0:21:48 > 0:21:52because they're a cover for flirtation and all sorts of inappropriate behaviour.
0:21:52 > 0:21:57Well, Fanny, who's sort of the centre of the moral consciousness of the novel,
0:21:57 > 0:22:00certainly refuses to act - Fanny will not act -
0:22:00 > 0:22:04but it's simply not the case that Jane Austen herself disapproved of
0:22:04 > 0:22:10either play-reading or theatre-going or involving herself in private theatricals.
0:22:10 > 0:22:14She's absorbing things from her life and transforming them in artistic ways.
0:22:18 > 0:22:19In Mansfield Park,
0:22:19 > 0:22:24the amateur theatricals help to expose the conflicts and jealousies
0:22:24 > 0:22:26within a great house -
0:22:26 > 0:22:30just the sort of thing that Jane might have witnessed at Godmersham.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35I think that this was the house that had the biggest influence on Jane's writing.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49Some of Jane's other travels were rather more relaxing.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55As the 19th century dawned,
0:22:55 > 0:22:58Jane's parents embraced the fashion for tourism.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02They took Jane to Sidmouth, to Dawlish...
0:23:03 > 0:23:06..and then to Lyme Regis.
0:23:11 > 0:23:12Jane couldn't swim,
0:23:12 > 0:23:18but she was dipped in the sea by a local woman called Molly.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23She probably didn't bathe nude, whatever this picture might suggest.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27But it is true that Lyme was a free and easy sort of a place.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32This book is a guide to the sea-bathing places,
0:23:32 > 0:23:36and it's pretty frank about the advantages of Lyme -
0:23:36 > 0:23:39advantages that would have appealed to the Austens.
0:23:40 > 0:23:44The "lodgings at Lyme are not merely reasonable, they are even cheap."
0:23:44 > 0:23:46It's a budget resort.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49"There's no need to dress up in fancy clothes,
0:23:49 > 0:23:53"no need for extravagance of exterior show."
0:23:53 > 0:23:56The boarding houses in Lyme are graded.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59At the top of the hill, you've got pleasant houses with nice views
0:23:59 > 0:24:02for "persons of consideration".
0:24:02 > 0:24:07Down in the lower town, though, you'll find "the lower orders".
0:24:07 > 0:24:11And I'm sorry to say that the Austens were right at the bottom of the hill
0:24:11 > 0:24:13in Mr Pyne's house, just there.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22Even on holiday, you had to know your place.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24And you got what you paid for.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28The accommodation rented by the Austens was strictly no-frills.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33Jane wouldn't have given a very good review to the various lodging houses
0:24:33 > 0:24:38of Lyme. Of one of them, she wrote, "The inconvenience is exceeded only
0:24:38 > 0:24:40"by the dirtiness."
0:24:40 > 0:24:43And she had a bit of a ding-dong with the owner of this place,
0:24:43 > 0:24:49Mr Pyne, about the ludicrous sum he wanted to charge for something that got broken.
0:24:49 > 0:24:55But Jane didn't care at all because she could look out of this window
0:24:55 > 0:24:56and watch the sea.
0:25:07 > 0:25:12Jane thought that travel to the seaside was very delightful -
0:25:12 > 0:25:16a taste of the itinerant life she envied in the wives of sailors or soldiers.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20And there was a wildness here.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24Jane was most drawn to the sea wall called The Cobb.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27She once spent a whole hour walking along it.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34You're not allowed to walk up here when it's windy because the big waves
0:25:34 > 0:25:37come jumping up over the edge.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39And I think that, for Jane,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43being at the seaside was all about cutting loose and letting go.
0:25:45 > 0:25:51She did have a holiday fling at the seaside, and her sister later said
0:25:51 > 0:25:55that this mysterious man had been the love of Jane's life.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03Jane saw the seaside as a place for passion, and Lyme became one of
0:26:03 > 0:26:06her most memorable literary settings.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10In Jane's novel Persuasion,
0:26:10 > 0:26:14the high winds drive some ladies to come down from the Upper Cobb to
0:26:14 > 0:26:18walk on the lower part, but one of them, Louisa,
0:26:18 > 0:26:23gets so excited by the wind and the waves that she wants to jump down to
0:26:23 > 0:26:28the bottom and into the arms of a dashing sea captain. She slips,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31she falls, she's lifeless on the ground.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35In this case, the exhilaration of the seaside has led to danger.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42Jane herself liked the idea of a leap into the unknown -
0:26:42 > 0:26:44that's what holidays were for.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48But a permanent move was quite another matter.
0:26:49 > 0:26:56In 1801, aged 25, Jane had to leave her home in Steventon forever.
0:26:57 > 0:27:03Her father decided to retire and relocate, taking his wife and daughters
0:27:03 > 0:27:06with him to start a new life in Bath.
0:27:19 > 0:27:24It's said that, when Jane first heard she was moving here, she fainted.
0:27:25 > 0:27:30Bath was a flourishing spa town with an incredibly busy social scene.
0:27:31 > 0:27:37It was probably the last place that Jane would find peace and quiet to write.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40But she had no choice.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43She decided it was best just to get on with the move.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48Jane and her mother threw themselves into house-hunting.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52This was their headquarters - the house where Jane's aunt and uncle lived.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56Jane's aunt wanted them to settle in this part of town,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59but it was no good - it was too noisy,
0:27:59 > 0:28:03there wasn't enough greenery and Mr Austen now had arthritis.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07He walked with a stick and couldn't manage the steep hills.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14Even more than in Lyme, where you lived in Bath reflected your status.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18There was a thriving rental market catering to wealthy visitors.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22I'm off to see some of the places that Jane considered.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24There are an awful lot of them!
0:28:32 > 0:28:35"I went with my mother to help look at some houses in New King Street,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39"towards which she felt some kind of inclination.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41"They were smaller than I expected to find them."
0:28:43 > 0:28:44Quite monstrously little.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Jane's mother kept setting her heart on the most unsuitable places.
0:28:52 > 0:28:54"Above all others, her wishes are, at present,
0:28:54 > 0:28:59"fixed on the corner house in Chapel Row which opens into Princes Street.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02"Her knowledge of it, however, is confined only to the outside."
0:29:05 > 0:29:08The houses in Green Park Buildings were...
0:29:08 > 0:29:11"So very desirable in size and situation..."
0:29:11 > 0:29:14but they were also very damp.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18The Austens looked at Charles Street, Seymour Street,
0:29:18 > 0:29:19Westgate Buildings,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22the streets off Laura Place - too expensive -
0:29:22 > 0:29:25Gay Street - too steep.
0:29:25 > 0:29:30At least Jane and her mother agreed on one place they absolutely would not live.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34"She will do everything in her power to avoid Trim Street."
0:29:40 > 0:29:46Eventually, the Austens decided on 4 Sydney Place.
0:29:54 > 0:29:57Newly built and a flat walk from the centre,
0:29:57 > 0:30:00it had the right sort of neighbours -
0:30:00 > 0:30:03a baronet, a Major-General and a lady.
0:30:03 > 0:30:08And it was just about affordable at £150 a year -
0:30:08 > 0:30:11that's a quarter of Jane's father's income.
0:30:11 > 0:30:16These days, it's a holiday let, which means that I get to stay the night.
0:30:16 > 0:30:22The Austens had rather longer - a three-year lease - to enjoy its comforts.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26Up here are the bedrooms.
0:30:26 > 0:30:30Mr and Mrs Austen had the lovely view over the park...
0:30:33 > 0:30:37..while Jane and Cassandra shared the room at the back.
0:30:44 > 0:30:49This fantastic and utterly ginormous document contains
0:30:49 > 0:30:53the original deeds of 4 Sydney Place.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57Here's a beautiful elevation showing exactly how the builder should
0:30:57 > 0:31:01construct the house, and over here is the contract, which specifies that
0:31:01 > 0:31:05he's got to put in street lighting and running water.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07It's all terribly grand.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11But sitting here, in Jane and Cassandra's bedroom,
0:31:11 > 0:31:16what strikes me is that your experience of a Georgian house like this
0:31:16 > 0:31:19really does depend on your position in society.
0:31:19 > 0:31:24The girls are tucked away upstairs in the back bedroom and, out of their window,
0:31:24 > 0:31:30what you can see today are the slightly rubbish backs of the houses behind.
0:31:31 > 0:31:36In fact, this document doesn't specify what the back of Sydney Place was to
0:31:36 > 0:31:39look like because nobody cared.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42Bath was all about the first impression.
0:31:47 > 0:31:53First impressions mattered because most people didn't stay in Bath for long.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57The whole social scene was constantly changing.
0:31:57 > 0:32:02Jane had to embark on a complex schedule of visits and engagements,
0:32:02 > 0:32:04and there was always the hope that she might find a husband.
0:32:06 > 0:32:11I'm paying a call, just as Jane would have done, to a rather grander house
0:32:11 > 0:32:13than her own in the Royal Crescent.
0:32:13 > 0:32:19Professor Elaine Chalus has left her card for me, so I'm now returning the visit.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23- Good morning, Elaine.- Hi, Lucy.
0:32:23 > 0:32:24Thank you for having me.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28- You're very welcome.- I'm paying you a morning call.
0:32:28 > 0:32:29What are the rules for that?
0:32:29 > 0:32:32You will come in and you'll find me in my morning drawing room.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35In this house, it happens to be on the ground floor,
0:32:35 > 0:32:36but often it's upstairs.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40If you're somebody that I don't know particularly well or you're paying me
0:32:40 > 0:32:43a courtesy call, you may come in, stay 10-15 minutes,
0:32:43 > 0:32:46maybe half an hour maximum, and go.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49If you're somebody that's intimate with me and we're good friends,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52we haven't seen each other for a while, we could then spend the rest of
0:32:52 > 0:32:56the morning together, basically, gossiping and having chat over tea.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59And what would you do if you didn't want to see me?
0:32:59 > 0:33:00- You can keep me out, can't you? - Oh, yeah.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05That's rather fun. You basically tell your servants that you're not in.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08So, Elaine, the morning's over, what's next in the Bath schedule?
0:33:08 > 0:33:12Once you've changed and you're ready to go out, then you'll go out and you'll maybe go
0:33:12 > 0:33:13for your walk,
0:33:13 > 0:33:15you might go shopping,
0:33:15 > 0:33:18then you come home and you're going to change again, of course.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20And you'll get ready for dinner.
0:33:20 > 0:33:22And that wouldn't take place in this room,
0:33:22 > 0:33:25that would actually take place on the other side, and it was really
0:33:25 > 0:33:30important that you had a good dining room because a dining room is one
0:33:30 > 0:33:35of the places where people get together over food and drink,
0:33:35 > 0:33:38it's more intimate than the morning visits.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40That is a fantastic display, isn't it?
0:33:40 > 0:33:42- It is.- Lovely dinner.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Yeah, and it's a wonderful place to show off your best china,
0:33:45 > 0:33:49to show off the skills of your cook.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53'After dinner, the guests moved upstairs for tea, where they were often
0:33:53 > 0:33:57'joined by second-tier visitors - that's people like the Austens.'
0:33:57 > 0:34:00This is the parlour withdrawing room where the women would come
0:34:00 > 0:34:06after dinner, and things would be set out all ready for tea, as they are here.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08You would find all kinds of things going on.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11You would have some people reading and you could be, of course, playing
0:34:11 > 0:34:14on whatever musical instruments were available. We've got a harpsichord here.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17By the time of Austen, often, you would have had a piano,
0:34:17 > 0:34:18there might have been a harp,
0:34:18 > 0:34:23but these kinds of things so that you've got something to do to keep your hands occupied.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26Did Jane enjoy these tea drinking sessions?
0:34:26 > 0:34:27Some of them she did,
0:34:27 > 0:34:29some of them she enjoyed because she liked the people,
0:34:29 > 0:34:33but there were certainly some events that she found desperately difficult
0:34:33 > 0:34:36in terms of being really, really boring.
0:34:36 > 0:34:38I love the time when she says nothing much is happening,
0:34:38 > 0:34:44so the entertainment is a reading from a pamphlet about smallpox.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46Yeah, that kind of thing can happen.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49I think smallpox tells you it was a really slow evening.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53The subtext to all this social life is husband-hunting,
0:34:53 > 0:34:56isn't it? How did that go for Jane?
0:34:56 > 0:34:57What sort of a catch was she?
0:34:58 > 0:35:01Not a great catch, actually.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04She wouldn't have had a huge amount of money to bring with her.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06She's a vicar's daughter.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08She's not superbly beautiful.
0:35:08 > 0:35:10She does have a GSOH -
0:35:10 > 0:35:12- a good sense of humour. - She does have that,
0:35:12 > 0:35:14but that's actually double-edged
0:35:14 > 0:35:16because having a witty woman who could sort of
0:35:16 > 0:35:22take the mick out of the men isn't necessarily going to win you a lot
0:35:22 > 0:35:24of plaudits with some men, for sure, it will put them off.
0:35:28 > 0:35:32Jane may not have been to the liking of the Bath bachelors
0:35:32 > 0:35:36but, while she was living here, she did receive a proposal from a highly
0:35:36 > 0:35:38eligible country gentleman.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46In 1802, Jane and Cassandra
0:35:46 > 0:35:51visited some old friends, Catherine and Alethea Bigg,
0:35:51 > 0:35:52back in Hampshire.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57They were joined by the Biggs' younger brother,
0:35:57 > 0:36:0121-year-old Harris Bigg-Wither.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08Harris Bigg-Wither proposed to Jane, and she accepted him.
0:36:08 > 0:36:14She must have been relieved - she was nearly 27, getting on a bit.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18And while Harris wasn't a looker, he was very respectable.
0:36:18 > 0:36:23And he was going to inherit Manydown Park, long since demolished.
0:36:23 > 0:36:28But the next morning, having thought it over, Jane broke it all off.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31It must have been excruciatingly awkward.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35She had to flee from Manydown Park in embarrassment.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40It was probably for the best.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42Harris didn't have much conversation,
0:36:42 > 0:36:47he could sometimes be outrageously rude and Jane clearly didn't love him.
0:36:49 > 0:36:54And I believe there was another reason Jane was feeling confident enough
0:36:54 > 0:36:57to turn down the mansion and the cushy lifestyle.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01She thought that she was soon going to become a published author.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07And she knew that, if she got married, she'd have to give birth to babies,
0:37:07 > 0:37:08not books.
0:37:11 > 0:37:17Sure enough, in 1803, Jane sold the manuscript of her novel Susan
0:37:17 > 0:37:20to a publisher for ten whole pounds.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23This book would eventually become Northanger Abbey,
0:37:23 > 0:37:26and it's all about Bath society.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30Its young heroine, Catherine,
0:37:30 > 0:37:34arrives here with eager delight, ready for the pleasures of
0:37:34 > 0:37:36the public dances and the pump rooms.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39It seemed that Jane had finally made it as an author.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46Except, it all came to nothing.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49The novel wasn't printed in her lifetime,
0:37:49 > 0:37:52and Jane had lost her chance at independence.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor...
0:37:59 > 0:38:02..which is one very strong argument in favour of matrimony.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11It was the start of a difficult time.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13The Austens were going down in the world.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20When the lease expired on Sydney Place,
0:38:20 > 0:38:24they were forced to take a house in Green Park Buildings,
0:38:24 > 0:38:26even though they'd previously ruled it out.
0:38:26 > 0:38:32Then, in 1805, Jane's father became seriously ill with a fever...
0:38:32 > 0:38:33and he died.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38When the Austens had first been house-hunting in Bath, they'd rejected
0:38:38 > 0:38:41Green Park Buildings because, although the houses were cheap,
0:38:41 > 0:38:45they were damp. You can see that they've been built up on a platform
0:38:45 > 0:38:48because the river used to flood just here.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52The people in the houses complained about putrid fevers.
0:38:53 > 0:38:58Now, when you get a lot of water standing around, you get mosquitoes.
0:38:58 > 0:39:06And Mr Austen's waves of fever are consistent with the disease of malaria.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09It could be that Green Park Buildings killed him.
0:39:12 > 0:39:17Whatever the cause, his death was a disaster.
0:39:17 > 0:39:19Jane and her mother and sister
0:39:19 > 0:39:23now found themselves in reduced circumstances,
0:39:23 > 0:39:26reliant on the charity of Jane's brothers.
0:39:27 > 0:39:29They moved again, to Gay Street,
0:39:29 > 0:39:34and then finally to the dreaded Trim Street.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39In Trim Street, there weren't any titled neighbours, just a milliner's
0:39:39 > 0:39:42and a fire insurance office.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45Jane's mother was really fed up of living here.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48She addressed her letters from Trim Street, still. Rr!
0:39:50 > 0:39:56In Persuasion, Jane's heroine, Anne Eliot, persists in a very determined,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59though very silent, disinclination for Bath.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02You could certainly go off a place.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09The truth was that the Austens couldn't afford to stay there.
0:40:11 > 0:40:16In 1806, after five years in Bath, Jane was packed off again,
0:40:16 > 0:40:21this time to a rented house in distinctly down-market Southampton.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26Jane's brother Frank was in the Navy.
0:40:26 > 0:40:31He moved his mother and sisters in with his young wife while he was
0:40:31 > 0:40:33away at sea.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37Southampton was the lowest point in Jane's fortunes.
0:40:38 > 0:40:42It was described by one contemporary visitor as a dirty town
0:40:42 > 0:40:46with unsurpassably smelly side streets.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52Southampton has changed quite a lot since Jane's time.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56But she would still recognise the ancient stone ramparts.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05All this used to be the sea. It came right up against the old city walls.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08You could see dolphins from this spot.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12It's now dry land and a ginormous building site.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17Jane's house has gone, too.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21But luckily, a contemporary artist included it in his painting.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27This is Jane's house, right next door to this rather eccentric castle
0:41:27 > 0:41:31that had recently been embellished with extra turrets.
0:41:31 > 0:41:36I think that the Austen ladies chose this house because it had a lovely garden.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38They were missing greenery.
0:41:38 > 0:41:43And you can see the garden's trees poking up over the old city walls.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46And despite the size, it soon got full up.
0:41:46 > 0:41:51There was Jane, her sister, their mother, their friend Martha,
0:41:51 > 0:41:54their sister-in-law Mary, add in three or four servants,
0:41:54 > 0:41:58and you have a household of eight or nine women.
0:41:58 > 0:42:00It was cramped.
0:42:03 > 0:42:09The castle's been replaced by a tower block and Jane's garden by a pub.
0:42:09 > 0:42:11Time for a pint.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13Jane had to spend her money very carefully
0:42:13 > 0:42:15because it was all gifted to her.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Earning money was inappropriate for a gentlewoman.
0:42:19 > 0:42:23Jane's actual accounts from 1807 survive.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26Her mother and brother covered food and rent,
0:42:26 > 0:42:28but everything else was down to her.
0:42:29 > 0:42:35This is Jane's discretionary expenditure, and she's feeling very flush
0:42:35 > 0:42:39because she's just received a legacy from a little old lady that she met
0:42:39 > 0:42:40and got to know in Bath.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44This is payback time for all of that hard socialising.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47So what's she spent it on?
0:42:47 > 0:42:52On getting her clothes washed, on letters and parcels -
0:42:52 > 0:42:54that's very characteristic -
0:42:54 > 0:42:57and there are treats here, too, because she's feeling rich.
0:42:57 > 0:43:00She's hired a piano for £2.
0:43:00 > 0:43:07She gives away a quarter of her money in tips to servants, in charity
0:43:07 > 0:43:08and in presents.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10Someone else had given her this money.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14Now she was giving it to people who were even more in need.
0:43:14 > 0:43:19It's a very feminine form of economics.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21And it's a very precarious way of living.
0:43:25 > 0:43:30Jane had no income except from family and friends.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32She didn't have time or space to write.
0:43:34 > 0:43:38Stuck in Southampton in her mid-30s, she had no prospects at all.
0:43:41 > 0:43:46But then, along came another chance to move. Jane's brother Edward,
0:43:46 > 0:43:48the rich adopted one who lived in Kent,
0:43:48 > 0:43:51also had a little bolthole in Hampshire.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58Chawton House - a glorious Elizabethan manor.
0:44:01 > 0:44:07When Edward's wife died, his thoughts turned to his home county
0:44:07 > 0:44:08and to his mother and sisters.
0:44:09 > 0:44:13Why not move them all back to be near him?
0:44:13 > 0:44:19So, in 1809, Jane found herself heading again for a prime property,
0:44:19 > 0:44:22but Edward wasn't quite as generous as he might have been.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27Jane wasn't moving here...
0:44:30 > 0:44:34..but to the former bailiff's house down the street.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41Chawton Cottage was on a main road. In fact,
0:44:41 > 0:44:45passing stagecoach passengers could see right in through the windows.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52But at least it was an end to all the uncertainty.
0:44:57 > 0:45:01And here, Jane settled down into a daily routine.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05We're told that she got up early to play the piano before anyone else
0:45:05 > 0:45:09was around. Then, at nine o'clock, she made the tea.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14This seems to have been about the limit of her household duties.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17It's as if the rest of them realised she was no good at housework
0:45:17 > 0:45:20and shielded her from it so that she could get on with her writing.
0:45:27 > 0:45:28Jane now worked hard,
0:45:28 > 0:45:32rewriting the novels she'd started years earlier at Steventon.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38And, in 1811, she finally had a book published -
0:45:38 > 0:45:41Sense And Sensibility.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44It's the story of sisters who are forced to leave their spacious home
0:45:44 > 0:45:47and move to a modest cottage in the country -
0:45:47 > 0:45:53one with dark, narrow stairs and a kitchen that smokes.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57The book made Jane a respectable £140 -
0:45:57 > 0:46:01enough to cover her expenses for three years.
0:46:01 > 0:46:06She sold the rights to Pride And Prejudice for a similar amount.
0:46:06 > 0:46:11But when it came out in 1813, it was a huge bestseller.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15It made Jane's publisher more than three times what he'd paid her.
0:46:18 > 0:46:23Jane still lived frugally at Chawton Cottage with her sister,
0:46:23 > 0:46:25mother and friend Martha.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30This is a collection of recipes put together by the Austen ladies with
0:46:30 > 0:46:32their friend Martha Lloyd.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36They're not very ambitious in their cooking plans.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39The first recipe is for pea soup.
0:46:39 > 0:46:40And they're thrifty.
0:46:40 > 0:46:46If you turn to the back of the book, we've got recipes for household products.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50Here's one for "a cure for a swelled neck".
0:46:50 > 0:46:55And here's one that seems particularly appropriate - a recipe "to make ink".
0:46:56 > 0:46:58I'm going to have a go at that one,
0:46:58 > 0:47:01but possibly not while I'm holding a priceless historical artefact!
0:47:04 > 0:47:09First, you take galls. These are little nodules
0:47:09 > 0:47:13that are produced when an insect lays its egg in an oak tree.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21Next comes...oh, the gum.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23This is gum arabic.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26And my gum has been pre-powdered.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32Next comes the green copperas.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34This stuff is basically iron sulphate.
0:47:36 > 0:47:41Next you put in the strong, stale beer.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45Now, there's no real chemical reason for the beer,
0:47:45 > 0:47:48but I think it's really in the recipe to make ink-making more fun.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57You add some sugar and stir.
0:48:01 > 0:48:06Then you stand the ink in a chimney corner
0:48:06 > 0:48:09for 14 days, and you shake it
0:48:09 > 0:48:13two or three times a day. Hm. 14 days!
0:48:15 > 0:48:18Unfortunately, I don't think we have one that we made earlier!
0:48:26 > 0:48:29Amazingly, that does look like real ink.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33The original recipe makes two pints of ink.
0:48:35 > 0:48:36Jane needed plenty of it.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40She wrote a brand-new novel - Mansfield Park.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46Her books were bringing her freedom and confidence.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51The nitty-gritty of publishing often took Jane to London,
0:48:51 > 0:48:54where she stayed with her brother Henry, who was now a banker.
0:49:02 > 0:49:06Henry had been working his way up the London property ladder.
0:49:06 > 0:49:13And by 1814, he owned a fancy bachelor pad in Hans Place, Knightsbridge,
0:49:13 > 0:49:15now replaced by mansion flats.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26You might not think of London as Jane Austen land,
0:49:26 > 0:49:30but I reckon that this was the place that suited her best of all.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35Henry's house had a lovely garden right next to his study.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39It was August and, when Jane got hot and tired of writing,
0:49:39 > 0:49:43she could come out here for a restorative stroll.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45Henry was out all day at his bank.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48He was now a widower, he only had one maid.
0:49:48 > 0:49:50There was nobody to bother Jane.
0:49:50 > 0:49:54Here, at last, was a life free from social obligations.
0:49:54 > 0:50:00And here, she got on with what I think is her most brilliant book - Emma.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05This new heroine was rich and confident.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08But she wasn't a woman of the world.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12Although Emma lived 16 miles from London, she never actually goes there.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15Jane was more intrepid.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18For this latest novel, Jane's brother Henry
0:50:18 > 0:50:23had found her a more prestigious publisher - John Murray.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25But then Henry fell ill
0:50:25 > 0:50:27and Jane was forced, for the first time,
0:50:27 > 0:50:30to start dealing with her business herself.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37This is John Murray's office and home, at 50 Albemarle Street.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41This was a place where Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott would come.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51I can imagine Jane sitting impatiently in this waiting room...
0:50:54 > 0:50:58..before being sent upstairs to John Murray's famous drawing room.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03Murray had offered to publish Emma,
0:51:03 > 0:51:08but he wanted the copyright of both Mansfield Park and
0:51:08 > 0:51:10Sense And Sensibility thrown in, too.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15Jane thought that Murray was offering her a bad deal.
0:51:15 > 0:51:20She decided to seize control of her affairs at last.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29So Jane started to negotiate, first by letter,
0:51:29 > 0:51:31then in visits to this office.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33It was hard work.
0:51:33 > 0:51:38She wrote that John Murray was a rogue, if a very civil one,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41and he offered her £450.
0:51:41 > 0:51:46Now, Jane had been stung before by this selling the copyright thing.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49That's how she'd published Pride And Prejudice.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52And when it sold much better than expected, it meant that the publisher
0:51:52 > 0:51:54kept all the cash.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56So she refused that.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00Instead, she went for what we'd call self-publishing,
0:52:00 > 0:52:03where she ran the risk but would get the reward,
0:52:03 > 0:52:05minus 10% commission to Murray.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09Now, the really heartbreaking thing is
0:52:09 > 0:52:13that this was a terrible business decision of Jane's.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17None of her later books would sell as well as Pride And Prejudice.
0:52:17 > 0:52:19And by the time she died,
0:52:19 > 0:52:23she'd actually only earnt just over £650
0:52:23 > 0:52:25from all her books.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31But for a few years, during her visits to London,
0:52:31 > 0:52:33Jane glimpsed a different life.
0:52:35 > 0:52:40The life of a successful novelist, shopping, visiting exhibitions
0:52:40 > 0:52:44and plays, and travelling in her brother's carriage.
0:52:50 > 0:52:55The driving about, the carriage being open, was very pleasant.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58I liked my solitary elegance very much
0:52:58 > 0:53:02and was ready to laugh all the time at my being where I was.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06I could not but feel that I had naturally small right to be parading
0:53:06 > 0:53:08around London in a barouche.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14Jane was no longer dependent,
0:53:14 > 0:53:18to be passed about from one place to another like a parcel.
0:53:18 > 0:53:19She was an author.
0:53:19 > 0:53:21She could go where she liked.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30It didn't last. Less than a year after Emma was published,
0:53:30 > 0:53:34Jane was back at Chawton Cottage and seriously ill.
0:53:36 > 0:53:41She was suffering from aches and pains, from fevers and bilious attacks.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47One of her nieces remembers visiting Aunt Jane and being shocked to find
0:53:47 > 0:53:49her up here in her bedroom,
0:53:49 > 0:53:54wearing a dressing gown and sitting in a chair, just like an invalid.
0:53:54 > 0:53:56Things were looking bad for Jane.
0:53:56 > 0:53:58And she was only 41.
0:54:01 > 0:54:07On 24th May, 1817, Jane and Cassandra made the 16-mile journey
0:54:07 > 0:54:11to Winchester in their brother James' carriage.
0:54:11 > 0:54:16They came to be near a doctor - Jane's last chance for a cure.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19But she'd already made her will.
0:54:19 > 0:54:23For two months, College Street was their home.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26These rented rooms in the city centre were just the sort of place
0:54:26 > 0:54:29that genteel old maids ended up.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48My attendant is encouraging
0:54:48 > 0:54:50and talks of making me quite well.
0:54:51 > 0:54:53I live chiefly on the sofa...
0:54:54 > 0:54:57..but I'm allowed to walk from one room to the other.
0:54:58 > 0:55:03I've been out once in the sedan chair, and am to repeat it,
0:55:03 > 0:55:06and be promoted to a wheelchair as the weather serves.
0:55:13 > 0:55:17The upside was that Jane was living here with the family that she'd
0:55:17 > 0:55:21selected for herself, spinsters looking out for each other.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24She got this house because of her two good friends who live just
0:55:24 > 0:55:28around the corner. And as Jane got sicker and sicker,
0:55:28 > 0:55:33she was looked after here by her sister and her sister-in-law.
0:55:33 > 0:55:40Jane spent the very last hours of her life with her head in her sister Cassandra's lap.
0:55:40 > 0:55:46And then, very early in the morning of 18th July, 1817,
0:55:46 > 0:55:49she slipped away in that room, just up there.
0:55:57 > 0:56:02Six days later, Jane's body was borne along College Street.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08Cassandra wrote,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11"I watched the little mournful procession the length of the street.
0:56:13 > 0:56:17"And when it turned from my sight, I had lost her for ever."
0:56:20 > 0:56:25Walking alongside the coffin were three of Jane's brothers and a nephew -
0:56:25 > 0:56:27the only mourners.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53Jane was brought here, to Winchester Cathedral,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56and placed in a vault on the North Aisle.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00It was a prime location at last.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05A black marble gravestone was laid over her.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18The inscription mentions "the benevolence of her heart,
0:57:18 > 0:57:20"the sweetness of her temper,
0:57:20 > 0:57:24"and the extraordinary endowments of her mind."
0:57:24 > 0:57:28That's as close as it gets to mentioning her novels.
0:57:28 > 0:57:33When Jane died, she was just a youngish, unknown, frail woman.
0:57:33 > 0:57:37Her name wasn't even printed in her books.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40All this would change. A few years later,
0:57:40 > 0:57:43one of the vergers of the cathedral was heard asking,
0:57:43 > 0:57:48"Who is this Jane Austen woman that everybody's talking about?"
0:57:48 > 0:57:52And now her fame almost eclipses that of the cathedral.
0:57:52 > 0:57:59Today, Winchester Cathedral is perhaps best known as Jane's final home.