Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors


Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors

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August 1806.

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Jane Austen found herself squeezed alongside her mother,

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her sister and a lawyer, rushing into Warwickshire in her cousin's carriage.

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It's like a scene from one of Jane's own stories.

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She was full of expectation,

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about to play her part in a real-life Austen family drama.

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Jane's destination was the ancestral home of the Leigh family.

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It was Stoneleigh Abbey.

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It's a story about money and inheritance and marriage -

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the very things at the core of Jane's novels.

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The honourable Mary Leigh, reclusive mistress of the house,

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had just died, unmarried and childless.

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Who was going to get the house and the cash?

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Jane's elderly cousin,

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one of the possible heirs, rushed over to stake his claim,

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bringing the Austens along for support.

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When Jane arrived here, she was 30 years old.

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She was unmarried and unpublished, despite her best efforts.

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And she was homeless.

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She'd just been forced out of the city of Bath through lack of funds.

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She was really hoping that some of the riches of this place would come

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in her direction.

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She needed an inheritance.

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But for Jane, the aspiring novelist,

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Stoneleigh Abbey also promised bounty of another sort -

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inspiration. Fragments of the Abbey made their way into her books.

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In Pride And Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet is shown around Pemberley by

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the housekeeper, just as Jane was shown around Stoneleigh.

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And Mansfield Park gained Stoneleigh Abbey's chapel.

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"The profusion of mahogany and the crimson velvet cushions appearing

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"over the ledge of the family gallery above."

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In the end, Jane went away without an inheritance,

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but Stoneleigh Abbey left its legacy in her work.

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Jane Austen's novels revolve around homes lost and mansions gained,

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the threat of poverty and the promise of wealth.

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And Jane's own life gave her a unique insight.

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In her 41 years, she stayed in many houses.

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At times, she was tantalisingly close to riches.

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At others, a step from destitution.

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I'm going to follow where Jane stayed.

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I'll visit the scenes of her romantic adventures and see where

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she struggled with her social obligations.

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This is the parlour with drawing room where the women would come after dinner.

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I'll try out some home economics, Austen style...

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Amazingly, that does look like real ink.

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..and explore the houses where she flourished as a writer.

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I think that knowing where Jane lived can tell us who Jane really was.

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I'm travelling to where it all began for Jane - Hampshire.

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In 18th-century England,

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your prospects for wealth and security were typically set from the moment

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of your birth.

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But Jane Austen wasn't raised in a typical home.

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Jane spent 25 years,

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more than half of her life, living in the house where she was born.

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Let's go and see what's left of it.

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Jane grew up in the sleepy village of Steventon,

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where her father was rector of the local church.

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She was born in 1775, in the reign of George III.

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The Austens were a bit unusual in that Jane's father was considered to

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be a gentleman

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but the family still struggled on a limited income.

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The Steventon that Jane knew has almost vanished.

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Its cottages were demolished in the 19th century.

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Jane's home, the rectory she shared with her parents,

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sister and six brothers has gone, too.

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But luckily for me,

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archaeologist Debbie Charlton has been investigating the site and

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building up a picture of Jane's first home.

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So, Debbie,

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let's pace out the plan of the rectory and find out roughly where it was.

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Right, so we're at the front, which was north-facing.

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So if you were to stay about there...

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-This is the corner of the building?

-In the west.

-It goes off like that?

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-Yes.

-OK, and how far that way does it go?

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I'll just try and walk over there.

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Hey! So that's the other corner?

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-That is, yes.

-Where's the front door? Is it in the middle?

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-It's in the middle.

-Meet you there.

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OK, then.

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-Is this it?

-This is it.

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Let me open it up. Is that right?

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-Yes, indeed.

-Let's step inside.

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-In we go.

-Where are we now?

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We've come into the lobby. It was a lobby-entry house.

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What were the other rooms?

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You had the front kitchen and then you had the back kitchen.

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The back kitchen's where all the work went on, all the cooking.

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-What about over here?

-Over here, you've got the main parlour,

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so you'd have the dining parlour and then the sitting parlour.

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What about Mr Austen's study?

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That was at the back, so he was looking out over the cucumber gardens.

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-Yeah, out over the gardens there.

-Is that cos he was hiding away?

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Yeah, he was, he was hiding away from the rest of the household.

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Oh, OK, lots of kids.

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A lot of activity.

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You need somewhere to go if you've got eight children.

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You did. I think it was a very busy house, a lot going on.

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It may seem like a big house, but it was crowded.

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Jane's father supplemented his income by running a boys' boarding school,

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so the rectory was also packed with his pupils.

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Mr Austen even had a third job as a farmer and the family kept cows,

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ducks and chickens.

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Debbie, I imagine a lot of people would think of Jane Austen growing up in

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some lovely country house situation, but that's not right, is it?

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No, no, I think she was definitely doing a bit of work on the farm.

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There is an instance where she's overjoyed that the new dairy maids

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arrived, which gives you the impression she was probably having to do it.

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-Until that point?

-Yeah.

-Ah!

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Tell me about some of these little finds that you've excavated.

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Right, so obviously, when you're doing an excavation,

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-a lot of it is the rubbish - what's been discarded or broken.

-Yes.

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So, we've built this back together, but it's a lovely little egg cup.

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Look at that.

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-It's beautiful.

-So this is the Willow Pattern.

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-So it's blue and white transferware.

-Yes.

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They'd just come out, they'd just learnt to do the transfer print.

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-Everybody who was anybody had to have transferware.

-Yes.

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They're from the perfect time, so about 1770.

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Now, Debbie, we don't have any evidence, do we,

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that Jane Austen didn't eat an egg out of this egg cup?

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We don't, no. So she may well have done.

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Jane Austen's egg cup!

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It's pretty, but it's mass produced.

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The Austens may have aspired to the latest tableware,

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but there wasn't that much money for luxuries.

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Jane's letters give a detailed account of everyday life at Steventon Rectory,

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with its unfashionable mealtimes,

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but a wealth of intellectual sustenance.

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We dine now at half after three and have done dinner, I suppose,

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before you begin.

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We drink tea at half after six.

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I'm afraid you will despise us.

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My father reads Cowper to us in the evenings, to which I listen,

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when I can.

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Reading was a big part of life at Steventon, and Jane had free access

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to her father's library, which contained many works of fiction.

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I think that this room set Jane on her path as a writer.

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The books here inspired her.

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From the age of 11, she wrote plays, satires, poems and novels.

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But how could her talent thrive in such a crowded house?

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Jane Austen's father realised that his daughter was becoming a serious writer.

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So he marked this by getting her, as a 19th birthday present,

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this expensive and beautiful mahogany writing desk.

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It hinges open like this so you can write on the slope of it.

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Now, for millions of Jane Austen lovers, this item is a holy relic

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because, under this flap, she would have kept drafts of all of her novels.

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Until the very end of her life, everywhere that Jane Austen went,

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this box went, too.

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Think of it as a tiny little office -

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the only space in her crowded home that Jane had completely to herself.

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But she didn't spend all of her time shut up in the rectory.

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Jane was a keen walker.

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She had to be. For most of her life,

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the Austen family couldn't afford a carriage.

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And she often travelled miles on foot,

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visiting a network of friends in the villages around Steventon.

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Some of their houses still survive, like Ashe Rectory.

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Here, Jane would call on her close friend Mrs Anne Lefroy.

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Music was a big part of these women's social lives.

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I'm meeting Professor Jeanice Brooks to learn about Jane Austen,

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the piano player.

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Was music something that girls did together?

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Yeah, there's lots of evidence that young women

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were communicating around and through music,

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in the same way that we think about how teenagers today

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communicate through music and by exchanging music, by swapping things round, by saying,

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hey, listen to this, this is my favourite right now.

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It sounds like we don't know exactly how proficient she was,

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but Jane Austen does strike me as somebody who really loves music.

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-Would you agree?

-Yes, yes.

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And I think it's important that, if you look at the novels,

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in all of the novels,

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intelligent conversation is always about music and books.

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It's not just books - it's music and books.

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It's something that she sees as part of a kind of normal,

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cultured education, something that people can talk about,

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something that is important.

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And she seems to, in later life, have played every day for herself.

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It's a thread that weaves right through all of Jane's novels as well.

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There are always characters who play in every single novel,

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there are some very important scenes that happen while people are playing.

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With music came dancing, which Jane also loved.

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Many of her plots centre around the excitement of encounters at balls,

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and Jane felt that thrill herself.

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Deane House, newly built at the time,

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was the scene of one particularly eventful ball for Jane.

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She came here on the night of January 8th, 1796.

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She'd just turned 20.

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And I've got the chance to see inside the very room where Jane danced.

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Now, this might not be the big and glamorous ballroom that you were expecting,

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but it was possible to hold a ball in just an ordinary house.

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You'd push back the furniture and invite around the neighbours for a dance.

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This meant that, when Jane went to balls, she wasn't always meeting

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new people. There were a lot of familiar faces but, one night,

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in this very room, she did meet somebody new.

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He was a young law student called Tom Lefroy.

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He and Jane got on awfully well

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and, pretty soon, they were flirting outrageously.

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Tom was the nephew of Jane's friend Mrs Lefroy.

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Jane's letters to her sister, Cassandra, tell of encounters with Tom

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over the course of a series of balls.

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It all started so promisingly.

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You scold me so much in the nice long letter which I have, this moment,

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received from you

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that I'm almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved.

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Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way

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of dancing and sitting down together.

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After I'd written the above, we received a visit from Mr Tom Lefroy.

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He has but one fault, which time will, I trust, entirely remove.

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It is that his morning coat is a great deal too light.

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I rather expect to receive an offer from my friend in the course of the evening.

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I shall refuse him, however.

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Unless he promises to give away his white coat.

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But Tom's family didn't approve.

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Their serious young lawyer was having way too much fun with Jane.

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At their final ball together, he didn't propose.

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Sometimes, people at balls drank too much,

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even Jane Austen.

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One time, she wrote about a hangover she had

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and the shaking of her hands the morning after.

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And there would be a rude awakening from her romance with Tom Lefroy.

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Tom was sent away from Hampshire.

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He had ten siblings - he needed to be able to support them,

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he needed to marry someone richer than Jane.

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The harsh truth was that, in Jane's world, money usually came before love.

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No wonder this became a central theme in her novels.

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And I don't think it's a coincidence that this is the year when Jane

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wrote her first draft of Pride And Prejudice.

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In fiction, at least,

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she could make sure that the poor but clever heroine won both the good man

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and his impressive house and grounds.

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Poor Jane was dogged by worries about money and status,

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even when she visited members of her own family.

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I'm following Jane to Kent to her brother Edward's house,

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where she sometimes stayed for months at a time.

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Now, you might well wonder how Edward ended up with the vast Godmersham Park near Canterbury.

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Well, quite simply, Jane's parents gave Edward away.

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Adopted by the childless but wealthy Knight family,

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Edward enjoyed an income of £15,000 a year.

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Even Jane's fictional catch, Mr Darcy, only had 10!

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Life at Godmersham gave Jane a window into a different world.

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I think it had a huge effect on her.

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Now it's a college for opticians.

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But you can still feel its grandeur.

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This might be the very room where Jane stayed when she was at Godmersham -

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a whole room to herself.

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She liked staying here because of the luxury.

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She wrote that she was going to eat ice cream and drink French wine and

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be above vulgar economy.

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But it's quite hard for her, as the poor relation.

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She worried that she couldn't afford to tip the servants properly.

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And Jane's relatives here at Godmersham were very different from her.

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They were hyper-social.

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They were into their outdoor pursuits.

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They thought Jane was clever, but a bit odd.

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I think it's telling that she made one very close friend here who wasn't

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a member of the family.

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It was the governess.

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Jane just wasn't in the same league as her fortunate brother,

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and even the visiting hairdresser seems to have noticed.

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Mr Hall walked off this morning with no inconsiderable booty.

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He charged Elizabeth five shillings for every time of dressing her hair.

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Towards me, he was as considerate as I'd hoped for,

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charging me only two shillings sixpence for cutting my hair.

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He certainly respects either our youth or our poverty.

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Jane was expected to earn her keep,

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helping to entertain a growing brood of nieces and nephews.

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One niece recalled spending entire days acting out plays with Aunt Jane.

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Home theatricals were all the rage at the time.

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And Professor Judith Hawley is helping me to put on a play that Jane wrote

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herself as a child.

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Scene the first, a parlour.

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Cousin, your servant.

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Stanly, good morning to you. I hope you slept well last night.

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Er, remarkably well, I thank you.

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I'm afraid you found your bed too short.

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It was bought in my grandmother's time,

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who was herself a very short woman

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and made a point of suiting all her beds to suit her own length.

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Judith, if you lived in a lovely big house in the country like this,

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it must be very nice,

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but do you think perhaps it got boring and you just longed for

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something to happen?

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That's when you could put on a private theatrical, and then you

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had the whole sense of an event to work towards,

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and the whole household could be involved.

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One of the pleasures would just have been that business of the bustle of

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turning a house upside down, rolling back the carpets,

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clearing out all the furniture, that sort of chaotic disruption.

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Do we know what plays Jane Austen wrote herself?

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We've got three surviving manuscripts in her Juvenilia.

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Her second play, which is my favourite, is called The Visit.

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What happens in The Visit?

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In The Visit, there's a brother and sister who invite people to

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their house, only nothing works according to plan.

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They're very apologetic about it,

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but there are only six chairs for eight people

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because Grandmamma didn't really like having people round.

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Sir Arthur and Lady Hampton, Miss Hampton, Mr and Miss Willoughby.

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Ooh, that's a lot of people.

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Here they all come.

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Pray, pray be seated.

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Bless me! There really ought to be eight chairs, but there are but six.

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However, if your Ladyship will take Sir Arthur in your lap and, Sophy,

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my brother in yours, then I believe that we shall do pretty well.

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I beg you'll make no apologies. Um...

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Ooh, Sophy! Oh, yes, please!

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Your brother really is very light.

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This is better than a chair.

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Now, if you've read Mansfield Park by Jane Austen,

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you might think that she doesn't approve of theatricals

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because they're a cover for flirtation and all sorts of inappropriate behaviour.

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Well, Fanny, who's sort of the centre of the moral consciousness of the novel,

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certainly refuses to act - Fanny will not act -

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but it's simply not the case that Jane Austen herself disapproved of

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either play-reading or theatre-going or involving herself in private theatricals.

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She's absorbing things from her life and transforming them in artistic ways.

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In Mansfield Park,

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the amateur theatricals help to expose the conflicts and jealousies

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within a great house -

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just the sort of thing that Jane might have witnessed at Godmersham.

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I think that this was the house that had the biggest influence on Jane's writing.

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Some of Jane's other travels were rather more relaxing.

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As the 19th century dawned,

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Jane's parents embraced the fashion for tourism.

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They took Jane to Sidmouth, to Dawlish...

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..and then to Lyme Regis.

0:23:030:23:06

Jane couldn't swim,

0:23:110:23:12

but she was dipped in the sea by a local woman called Molly.

0:23:120:23:18

She probably didn't bathe nude, whatever this picture might suggest.

0:23:180:23:23

But it is true that Lyme was a free and easy sort of a place.

0:23:230:23:27

This book is a guide to the sea-bathing places,

0:23:290:23:32

and it's pretty frank about the advantages of Lyme -

0:23:320:23:36

advantages that would have appealed to the Austens.

0:23:360:23:39

The "lodgings at Lyme are not merely reasonable, they are even cheap."

0:23:400:23:44

It's a budget resort.

0:23:440:23:46

"There's no need to dress up in fancy clothes,

0:23:460:23:49

"no need for extravagance of exterior show."

0:23:490:23:53

The boarding houses in Lyme are graded.

0:23:530:23:56

At the top of the hill, you've got pleasant houses with nice views

0:23:560:23:59

for "persons of consideration".

0:23:590:24:02

Down in the lower town, though, you'll find "the lower orders".

0:24:020:24:07

And I'm sorry to say that the Austens were right at the bottom of the hill

0:24:070:24:11

in Mr Pyne's house, just there.

0:24:110:24:13

Even on holiday, you had to know your place.

0:24:170:24:22

And you got what you paid for.

0:24:220:24:24

The accommodation rented by the Austens was strictly no-frills.

0:24:240:24:28

Jane wouldn't have given a very good review to the various lodging houses

0:24:300:24:33

of Lyme. Of one of them, she wrote, "The inconvenience is exceeded only

0:24:330:24:38

"by the dirtiness."

0:24:380:24:40

And she had a bit of a ding-dong with the owner of this place,

0:24:400:24:43

Mr Pyne, about the ludicrous sum he wanted to charge for something that got broken.

0:24:430:24:49

But Jane didn't care at all because she could look out of this window

0:24:490:24:55

and watch the sea.

0:24:550:24:56

Jane thought that travel to the seaside was very delightful -

0:25:070:25:12

a taste of the itinerant life she envied in the wives of sailors or soldiers.

0:25:120:25:16

And there was a wildness here.

0:25:180:25:20

Jane was most drawn to the sea wall called The Cobb.

0:25:200:25:24

She once spent a whole hour walking along it.

0:25:240:25:27

You're not allowed to walk up here when it's windy because the big waves

0:25:300:25:34

come jumping up over the edge.

0:25:340:25:37

And I think that, for Jane,

0:25:370:25:39

being at the seaside was all about cutting loose and letting go.

0:25:390:25:43

She did have a holiday fling at the seaside, and her sister later said

0:25:450:25:51

that this mysterious man had been the love of Jane's life.

0:25:510:25:55

Jane saw the seaside as a place for passion, and Lyme became one of

0:25:580:26:03

her most memorable literary settings.

0:26:030:26:06

In Jane's novel Persuasion,

0:26:070:26:10

the high winds drive some ladies to come down from the Upper Cobb to

0:26:100:26:14

walk on the lower part, but one of them, Louisa,

0:26:140:26:18

gets so excited by the wind and the waves that she wants to jump down to

0:26:180:26:23

the bottom and into the arms of a dashing sea captain. She slips,

0:26:230:26:28

she falls, she's lifeless on the ground.

0:26:280:26:31

In this case, the exhilaration of the seaside has led to danger.

0:26:310:26:35

Jane herself liked the idea of a leap into the unknown -

0:26:370:26:42

that's what holidays were for.

0:26:420:26:44

But a permanent move was quite another matter.

0:26:440:26:48

In 1801, aged 25, Jane had to leave her home in Steventon forever.

0:26:490:26:56

Her father decided to retire and relocate, taking his wife and daughters

0:26:570:27:03

with him to start a new life in Bath.

0:27:030:27:06

It's said that, when Jane first heard she was moving here, she fainted.

0:27:190:27:24

Bath was a flourishing spa town with an incredibly busy social scene.

0:27:250:27:30

It was probably the last place that Jane would find peace and quiet to write.

0:27:310:27:37

But she had no choice.

0:27:370:27:40

She decided it was best just to get on with the move.

0:27:400:27:43

Jane and her mother threw themselves into house-hunting.

0:27:440:27:48

This was their headquarters - the house where Jane's aunt and uncle lived.

0:27:480:27:52

Jane's aunt wanted them to settle in this part of town,

0:27:520:27:56

but it was no good - it was too noisy,

0:27:560:27:59

there wasn't enough greenery and Mr Austen now had arthritis.

0:27:590:28:03

He walked with a stick and couldn't manage the steep hills.

0:28:030:28:07

Even more than in Lyme, where you lived in Bath reflected your status.

0:28:090:28:14

There was a thriving rental market catering to wealthy visitors.

0:28:140:28:18

I'm off to see some of the places that Jane considered.

0:28:180:28:22

There are an awful lot of them!

0:28:220:28:24

"I went with my mother to help look at some houses in New King Street,

0:28:320:28:35

"towards which she felt some kind of inclination.

0:28:350:28:39

"They were smaller than I expected to find them."

0:28:390:28:41

Quite monstrously little.

0:28:430:28:44

Jane's mother kept setting her heart on the most unsuitable places.

0:28:460:28:50

"Above all others, her wishes are, at present,

0:28:520:28:54

"fixed on the corner house in Chapel Row which opens into Princes Street.

0:28:540:28:59

"Her knowledge of it, however, is confined only to the outside."

0:28:590:29:02

The houses in Green Park Buildings were...

0:29:050:29:08

"So very desirable in size and situation..."

0:29:080:29:11

but they were also very damp.

0:29:110:29:14

The Austens looked at Charles Street, Seymour Street,

0:29:140:29:18

Westgate Buildings,

0:29:180:29:19

the streets off Laura Place - too expensive -

0:29:190:29:22

Gay Street - too steep.

0:29:220:29:25

At least Jane and her mother agreed on one place they absolutely would not live.

0:29:250:29:30

"She will do everything in her power to avoid Trim Street."

0:29:300:29:34

Eventually, the Austens decided on 4 Sydney Place.

0:29:400:29:46

Newly built and a flat walk from the centre,

0:29:540:29:57

it had the right sort of neighbours -

0:29:570:30:00

a baronet, a Major-General and a lady.

0:30:000:30:03

And it was just about affordable at £150 a year -

0:30:030:30:08

that's a quarter of Jane's father's income.

0:30:080:30:11

These days, it's a holiday let, which means that I get to stay the night.

0:30:110:30:16

The Austens had rather longer - a three-year lease - to enjoy its comforts.

0:30:160:30:22

Up here are the bedrooms.

0:30:240:30:26

Mr and Mrs Austen had the lovely view over the park...

0:30:260:30:30

..while Jane and Cassandra shared the room at the back.

0:30:330:30:37

This fantastic and utterly ginormous document contains

0:30:440:30:49

the original deeds of 4 Sydney Place.

0:30:490:30:53

Here's a beautiful elevation showing exactly how the builder should

0:30:530:30:57

construct the house, and over here is the contract, which specifies that

0:30:570:31:01

he's got to put in street lighting and running water.

0:31:010:31:05

It's all terribly grand.

0:31:050:31:07

But sitting here, in Jane and Cassandra's bedroom,

0:31:080:31:11

what strikes me is that your experience of a Georgian house like this

0:31:110:31:16

really does depend on your position in society.

0:31:160:31:19

The girls are tucked away upstairs in the back bedroom and, out of their window,

0:31:190:31:24

what you can see today are the slightly rubbish backs of the houses behind.

0:31:240:31:30

In fact, this document doesn't specify what the back of Sydney Place was to

0:31:310:31:36

look like because nobody cared.

0:31:360:31:39

Bath was all about the first impression.

0:31:390:31:42

First impressions mattered because most people didn't stay in Bath for long.

0:31:470:31:53

The whole social scene was constantly changing.

0:31:530:31:57

Jane had to embark on a complex schedule of visits and engagements,

0:31:570:32:02

and there was always the hope that she might find a husband.

0:32:020:32:04

I'm paying a call, just as Jane would have done, to a rather grander house

0:32:060:32:11

than her own in the Royal Crescent.

0:32:110:32:13

Professor Elaine Chalus has left her card for me, so I'm now returning the visit.

0:32:130:32:19

-Good morning, Elaine.

-Hi, Lucy.

0:32:200:32:23

Thank you for having me.

0:32:230:32:24

-You're very welcome.

-I'm paying you a morning call.

0:32:240:32:28

What are the rules for that?

0:32:280:32:29

You will come in and you'll find me in my morning drawing room.

0:32:290:32:32

In this house, it happens to be on the ground floor,

0:32:320:32:35

but often it's upstairs.

0:32:350:32:36

If you're somebody that I don't know particularly well or you're paying me

0:32:360:32:40

a courtesy call, you may come in, stay 10-15 minutes,

0:32:400:32:43

maybe half an hour maximum, and go.

0:32:430:32:46

If you're somebody that's intimate with me and we're good friends,

0:32:460:32:49

we haven't seen each other for a while, we could then spend the rest of

0:32:490:32:52

the morning together, basically, gossiping and having chat over tea.

0:32:520:32:56

And what would you do if you didn't want to see me?

0:32:560:32:59

-You can keep me out, can't you?

-Oh, yeah.

0:32:590:33:00

That's rather fun. You basically tell your servants that you're not in.

0:33:000:33:05

So, Elaine, the morning's over, what's next in the Bath schedule?

0:33:050:33:08

Once you've changed and you're ready to go out, then you'll go out and you'll maybe go

0:33:080:33:12

for your walk,

0:33:120:33:13

you might go shopping,

0:33:130:33:15

then you come home and you're going to change again, of course.

0:33:150:33:18

And you'll get ready for dinner.

0:33:180:33:20

And that wouldn't take place in this room,

0:33:200:33:22

that would actually take place on the other side, and it was really

0:33:220:33:25

important that you had a good dining room because a dining room is one

0:33:250:33:30

of the places where people get together over food and drink,

0:33:300:33:35

it's more intimate than the morning visits.

0:33:350:33:38

That is a fantastic display, isn't it?

0:33:380:33:40

-It is.

-Lovely dinner.

0:33:400:33:42

Yeah, and it's a wonderful place to show off your best china,

0:33:420:33:45

to show off the skills of your cook.

0:33:450:33:49

'After dinner, the guests moved upstairs for tea, where they were often

0:33:490:33:53

'joined by second-tier visitors - that's people like the Austens.'

0:33:530:33:57

This is the parlour withdrawing room where the women would come

0:33:570:34:00

after dinner, and things would be set out all ready for tea, as they are here.

0:34:000:34:06

You would find all kinds of things going on.

0:34:060:34:08

You would have some people reading and you could be, of course, playing

0:34:080:34:11

on whatever musical instruments were available. We've got a harpsichord here.

0:34:110:34:14

By the time of Austen, often, you would have had a piano,

0:34:140:34:17

there might have been a harp,

0:34:170:34:18

but these kinds of things so that you've got something to do to keep your hands occupied.

0:34:180:34:23

Did Jane enjoy these tea drinking sessions?

0:34:230:34:26

Some of them she did,

0:34:260:34:27

some of them she enjoyed because she liked the people,

0:34:270:34:29

but there were certainly some events that she found desperately difficult

0:34:290:34:33

in terms of being really, really boring.

0:34:330:34:36

I love the time when she says nothing much is happening,

0:34:360:34:38

so the entertainment is a reading from a pamphlet about smallpox.

0:34:380:34:44

Yeah, that kind of thing can happen.

0:34:440:34:46

I think smallpox tells you it was a really slow evening.

0:34:460:34:49

The subtext to all this social life is husband-hunting,

0:34:490:34:53

isn't it? How did that go for Jane?

0:34:530:34:56

What sort of a catch was she?

0:34:560:34:57

Not a great catch, actually.

0:34:580:35:01

She wouldn't have had a huge amount of money to bring with her.

0:35:010:35:04

She's a vicar's daughter.

0:35:040:35:06

She's not superbly beautiful.

0:35:060:35:08

She does have a GSOH -

0:35:080:35:10

-a good sense of humour.

-She does have that,

0:35:100:35:12

but that's actually double-edged

0:35:120:35:14

because having a witty woman who could sort of

0:35:140:35:16

take the mick out of the men isn't necessarily going to win you a lot

0:35:160:35:22

of plaudits with some men, for sure, it will put them off.

0:35:220:35:24

Jane may not have been to the liking of the Bath bachelors

0:35:280:35:32

but, while she was living here, she did receive a proposal from a highly

0:35:320:35:36

eligible country gentleman.

0:35:360:35:38

In 1802, Jane and Cassandra

0:35:430:35:46

visited some old friends, Catherine and Alethea Bigg,

0:35:460:35:51

back in Hampshire.

0:35:510:35:52

They were joined by the Biggs' younger brother,

0:35:540:35:57

21-year-old Harris Bigg-Wither.

0:35:570:36:01

Harris Bigg-Wither proposed to Jane, and she accepted him.

0:36:030:36:08

She must have been relieved - she was nearly 27, getting on a bit.

0:36:080:36:14

And while Harris wasn't a looker, he was very respectable.

0:36:140:36:18

And he was going to inherit Manydown Park, long since demolished.

0:36:180:36:23

But the next morning, having thought it over, Jane broke it all off.

0:36:230:36:28

It must have been excruciatingly awkward.

0:36:280:36:31

She had to flee from Manydown Park in embarrassment.

0:36:310:36:35

It was probably for the best.

0:36:370:36:40

Harris didn't have much conversation,

0:36:400:36:42

he could sometimes be outrageously rude and Jane clearly didn't love him.

0:36:420:36:47

And I believe there was another reason Jane was feeling confident enough

0:36:490:36:54

to turn down the mansion and the cushy lifestyle.

0:36:540:36:57

She thought that she was soon going to become a published author.

0:36:570:37:01

And she knew that, if she got married, she'd have to give birth to babies,

0:37:020:37:07

not books.

0:37:070:37:08

Sure enough, in 1803, Jane sold the manuscript of her novel Susan

0:37:110:37:17

to a publisher for ten whole pounds.

0:37:170:37:20

This book would eventually become Northanger Abbey,

0:37:200:37:23

and it's all about Bath society.

0:37:230:37:26

Its young heroine, Catherine,

0:37:280:37:30

arrives here with eager delight, ready for the pleasures of

0:37:300:37:34

the public dances and the pump rooms.

0:37:340:37:36

It seemed that Jane had finally made it as an author.

0:37:360:37:39

Except, it all came to nothing.

0:37:430:37:46

The novel wasn't printed in her lifetime,

0:37:460:37:49

and Jane had lost her chance at independence.

0:37:490:37:52

Single women have a dreadful propensity for being poor...

0:37:540:37:58

..which is one very strong argument in favour of matrimony.

0:37:590:38:02

It was the start of a difficult time.

0:38:080:38:11

The Austens were going down in the world.

0:38:110:38:13

When the lease expired on Sydney Place,

0:38:170:38:20

they were forced to take a house in Green Park Buildings,

0:38:200:38:24

even though they'd previously ruled it out.

0:38:240:38:26

Then, in 1805, Jane's father became seriously ill with a fever...

0:38:260:38:32

and he died.

0:38:320:38:33

When the Austens had first been house-hunting in Bath, they'd rejected

0:38:340:38:38

Green Park Buildings because, although the houses were cheap,

0:38:380:38:41

they were damp. You can see that they've been built up on a platform

0:38:410:38:45

because the river used to flood just here.

0:38:450:38:48

The people in the houses complained about putrid fevers.

0:38:480:38:52

Now, when you get a lot of water standing around, you get mosquitoes.

0:38:530:38:58

And Mr Austen's waves of fever are consistent with the disease of malaria.

0:38:580:39:06

It could be that Green Park Buildings killed him.

0:39:060:39:09

Whatever the cause, his death was a disaster.

0:39:120:39:17

Jane and her mother and sister

0:39:170:39:19

now found themselves in reduced circumstances,

0:39:190:39:23

reliant on the charity of Jane's brothers.

0:39:230:39:26

They moved again, to Gay Street,

0:39:270:39:29

and then finally to the dreaded Trim Street.

0:39:290:39:34

In Trim Street, there weren't any titled neighbours, just a milliner's

0:39:350:39:39

and a fire insurance office.

0:39:390:39:42

Jane's mother was really fed up of living here.

0:39:420:39:45

She addressed her letters from Trim Street, still. Rr!

0:39:450:39:48

In Persuasion, Jane's heroine, Anne Eliot, persists in a very determined,

0:39:500:39:56

though very silent, disinclination for Bath.

0:39:560:39:59

You could certainly go off a place.

0:40:000:40:02

The truth was that the Austens couldn't afford to stay there.

0:40:050:40:09

In 1806, after five years in Bath, Jane was packed off again,

0:40:110:40:16

this time to a rented house in distinctly down-market Southampton.

0:40:160:40:21

Jane's brother Frank was in the Navy.

0:40:240:40:26

He moved his mother and sisters in with his young wife while he was

0:40:260:40:31

away at sea.

0:40:310:40:33

Southampton was the lowest point in Jane's fortunes.

0:40:330:40:37

It was described by one contemporary visitor as a dirty town

0:40:380:40:42

with unsurpassably smelly side streets.

0:40:420:40:46

Southampton has changed quite a lot since Jane's time.

0:40:480:40:52

But she would still recognise the ancient stone ramparts.

0:40:520:40:56

All this used to be the sea. It came right up against the old city walls.

0:41:000:41:05

You could see dolphins from this spot.

0:41:050:41:08

It's now dry land and a ginormous building site.

0:41:080:41:12

Jane's house has gone, too.

0:41:150:41:17

But luckily, a contemporary artist included it in his painting.

0:41:170:41:21

This is Jane's house, right next door to this rather eccentric castle

0:41:230:41:27

that had recently been embellished with extra turrets.

0:41:270:41:31

I think that the Austen ladies chose this house because it had a lovely garden.

0:41:310:41:36

They were missing greenery.

0:41:360:41:38

And you can see the garden's trees poking up over the old city walls.

0:41:380:41:43

And despite the size, it soon got full up.

0:41:430:41:46

There was Jane, her sister, their mother, their friend Martha,

0:41:460:41:51

their sister-in-law Mary, add in three or four servants,

0:41:510:41:54

and you have a household of eight or nine women.

0:41:540:41:58

It was cramped.

0:41:580:42:00

The castle's been replaced by a tower block and Jane's garden by a pub.

0:42:030:42:09

Time for a pint.

0:42:090:42:11

Jane had to spend her money very carefully

0:42:110:42:13

because it was all gifted to her.

0:42:130:42:15

Earning money was inappropriate for a gentlewoman.

0:42:150:42:18

Jane's actual accounts from 1807 survive.

0:42:190:42:23

Her mother and brother covered food and rent,

0:42:230:42:26

but everything else was down to her.

0:42:260:42:28

This is Jane's discretionary expenditure, and she's feeling very flush

0:42:290:42:35

because she's just received a legacy from a little old lady that she met

0:42:350:42:39

and got to know in Bath.

0:42:390:42:40

This is payback time for all of that hard socialising.

0:42:400:42:44

So what's she spent it on?

0:42:450:42:47

On getting her clothes washed, on letters and parcels -

0:42:470:42:52

that's very characteristic -

0:42:520:42:54

and there are treats here, too, because she's feeling rich.

0:42:540:42:57

She's hired a piano for £2.

0:42:570:43:00

She gives away a quarter of her money in tips to servants, in charity

0:43:000:43:07

and in presents.

0:43:070:43:08

Someone else had given her this money.

0:43:080:43:10

Now she was giving it to people who were even more in need.

0:43:100:43:14

It's a very feminine form of economics.

0:43:140:43:19

And it's a very precarious way of living.

0:43:190:43:21

Jane had no income except from family and friends.

0:43:250:43:30

She didn't have time or space to write.

0:43:300:43:32

Stuck in Southampton in her mid-30s, she had no prospects at all.

0:43:340:43:38

But then, along came another chance to move. Jane's brother Edward,

0:43:410:43:46

the rich adopted one who lived in Kent,

0:43:460:43:48

also had a little bolthole in Hampshire.

0:43:480:43:51

Chawton House - a glorious Elizabethan manor.

0:43:540:43:58

When Edward's wife died, his thoughts turned to his home county

0:44:010:44:07

and to his mother and sisters.

0:44:070:44:08

Why not move them all back to be near him?

0:44:090:44:13

So, in 1809, Jane found herself heading again for a prime property,

0:44:130:44:19

but Edward wasn't quite as generous as he might have been.

0:44:190:44:22

Jane wasn't moving here...

0:44:250:44:27

..but to the former bailiff's house down the street.

0:44:300:44:34

Chawton Cottage was on a main road. In fact,

0:44:370:44:41

passing stagecoach passengers could see right in through the windows.

0:44:410:44:45

But at least it was an end to all the uncertainty.

0:44:480:44:52

And here, Jane settled down into a daily routine.

0:44:570:45:01

We're told that she got up early to play the piano before anyone else

0:45:010:45:05

was around. Then, at nine o'clock, she made the tea.

0:45:050:45:09

This seems to have been about the limit of her household duties.

0:45:090:45:14

It's as if the rest of them realised she was no good at housework

0:45:140:45:17

and shielded her from it so that she could get on with her writing.

0:45:170:45:20

Jane now worked hard,

0:45:270:45:28

rewriting the novels she'd started years earlier at Steventon.

0:45:280:45:32

And, in 1811, she finally had a book published -

0:45:340:45:38

Sense And Sensibility.

0:45:380:45:41

It's the story of sisters who are forced to leave their spacious home

0:45:410:45:44

and move to a modest cottage in the country -

0:45:440:45:47

one with dark, narrow stairs and a kitchen that smokes.

0:45:470:45:53

The book made Jane a respectable £140 -

0:45:530:45:57

enough to cover her expenses for three years.

0:45:570:46:01

She sold the rights to Pride And Prejudice for a similar amount.

0:46:010:46:06

But when it came out in 1813, it was a huge bestseller.

0:46:060:46:11

It made Jane's publisher more than three times what he'd paid her.

0:46:110:46:15

Jane still lived frugally at Chawton Cottage with her sister,

0:46:180:46:23

mother and friend Martha.

0:46:230:46:25

This is a collection of recipes put together by the Austen ladies with

0:46:260:46:30

their friend Martha Lloyd.

0:46:300:46:32

They're not very ambitious in their cooking plans.

0:46:320:46:36

The first recipe is for pea soup.

0:46:360:46:39

And they're thrifty.

0:46:390:46:40

If you turn to the back of the book, we've got recipes for household products.

0:46:400:46:46

Here's one for "a cure for a swelled neck".

0:46:460:46:50

And here's one that seems particularly appropriate - a recipe "to make ink".

0:46:500:46:55

I'm going to have a go at that one,

0:46:560:46:58

but possibly not while I'm holding a priceless historical artefact!

0:46:580:47:01

First, you take galls. These are little nodules

0:47:040:47:09

that are produced when an insect lays its egg in an oak tree.

0:47:090:47:13

Next comes...oh, the gum.

0:47:190:47:21

This is gum arabic.

0:47:210:47:23

And my gum has been pre-powdered.

0:47:230:47:26

Next comes the green copperas.

0:47:290:47:32

This stuff is basically iron sulphate.

0:47:320:47:34

Next you put in the strong, stale beer.

0:47:360:47:41

Now, there's no real chemical reason for the beer,

0:47:410:47:45

but I think it's really in the recipe to make ink-making more fun.

0:47:450:47:48

You add some sugar and stir.

0:47:550:47:57

Then you stand the ink in a chimney corner

0:48:010:48:06

for 14 days, and you shake it

0:48:060:48:09

two or three times a day. Hm. 14 days!

0:48:090:48:13

Unfortunately, I don't think we have one that we made earlier!

0:48:150:48:18

Amazingly, that does look like real ink.

0:48:260:48:29

The original recipe makes two pints of ink.

0:48:300:48:33

Jane needed plenty of it.

0:48:350:48:36

She wrote a brand-new novel - Mansfield Park.

0:48:360:48:40

Her books were bringing her freedom and confidence.

0:48:420:48:46

The nitty-gritty of publishing often took Jane to London,

0:48:480:48:51

where she stayed with her brother Henry, who was now a banker.

0:48:510:48:54

Henry had been working his way up the London property ladder.

0:49:020:49:06

And by 1814, he owned a fancy bachelor pad in Hans Place, Knightsbridge,

0:49:060:49:13

now replaced by mansion flats.

0:49:130:49:15

You might not think of London as Jane Austen land,

0:49:220:49:26

but I reckon that this was the place that suited her best of all.

0:49:260:49:30

Henry's house had a lovely garden right next to his study.

0:49:310:49:35

It was August and, when Jane got hot and tired of writing,

0:49:350:49:39

she could come out here for a restorative stroll.

0:49:390:49:43

Henry was out all day at his bank.

0:49:430:49:45

He was now a widower, he only had one maid.

0:49:450:49:48

There was nobody to bother Jane.

0:49:480:49:50

Here, at last, was a life free from social obligations.

0:49:500:49:54

And here, she got on with what I think is her most brilliant book - Emma.

0:49:540:50:00

This new heroine was rich and confident.

0:50:020:50:05

But she wasn't a woman of the world.

0:50:050:50:08

Although Emma lived 16 miles from London, she never actually goes there.

0:50:080:50:12

Jane was more intrepid.

0:50:120:50:15

For this latest novel, Jane's brother Henry

0:50:160:50:18

had found her a more prestigious publisher - John Murray.

0:50:180:50:23

But then Henry fell ill

0:50:230:50:25

and Jane was forced, for the first time,

0:50:250:50:27

to start dealing with her business herself.

0:50:270:50:30

This is John Murray's office and home, at 50 Albemarle Street.

0:50:320:50:37

This was a place where Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott would come.

0:50:370:50:41

I can imagine Jane sitting impatiently in this waiting room...

0:50:470:50:51

..before being sent upstairs to John Murray's famous drawing room.

0:50:540:50:58

Murray had offered to publish Emma,

0:51:000:51:03

but he wanted the copyright of both Mansfield Park and

0:51:030:51:08

Sense And Sensibility thrown in, too.

0:51:080:51:10

Jane thought that Murray was offering her a bad deal.

0:51:120:51:15

She decided to seize control of her affairs at last.

0:51:150:51:20

So Jane started to negotiate, first by letter,

0:51:250:51:29

then in visits to this office.

0:51:290:51:31

It was hard work.

0:51:310:51:33

She wrote that John Murray was a rogue, if a very civil one,

0:51:330:51:38

and he offered her £450.

0:51:380:51:41

Now, Jane had been stung before by this selling the copyright thing.

0:51:410:51:46

That's how she'd published Pride And Prejudice.

0:51:460:51:49

And when it sold much better than expected, it meant that the publisher

0:51:490:51:52

kept all the cash.

0:51:520:51:54

So she refused that.

0:51:540:51:56

Instead, she went for what we'd call self-publishing,

0:51:560:52:00

where she ran the risk but would get the reward,

0:52:000:52:03

minus 10% commission to Murray.

0:52:030:52:05

Now, the really heartbreaking thing is

0:52:060:52:09

that this was a terrible business decision of Jane's.

0:52:090:52:13

None of her later books would sell as well as Pride And Prejudice.

0:52:130:52:17

And by the time she died,

0:52:170:52:19

she'd actually only earnt just over £650

0:52:190:52:23

from all her books.

0:52:230:52:25

But for a few years, during her visits to London,

0:52:270:52:31

Jane glimpsed a different life.

0:52:310:52:33

The life of a successful novelist, shopping, visiting exhibitions

0:52:350:52:40

and plays, and travelling in her brother's carriage.

0:52:400:52:44

The driving about, the carriage being open, was very pleasant.

0:52:500:52:55

I liked my solitary elegance very much

0:52:550:52:58

and was ready to laugh all the time at my being where I was.

0:52:580:53:02

I could not but feel that I had naturally small right to be parading

0:53:020:53:06

around London in a barouche.

0:53:060:53:08

Jane was no longer dependent,

0:53:120:53:14

to be passed about from one place to another like a parcel.

0:53:140:53:18

She was an author.

0:53:180:53:19

She could go where she liked.

0:53:190:53:21

It didn't last. Less than a year after Emma was published,

0:53:260:53:30

Jane was back at Chawton Cottage and seriously ill.

0:53:300:53:34

She was suffering from aches and pains, from fevers and bilious attacks.

0:53:360:53:41

One of her nieces remembers visiting Aunt Jane and being shocked to find

0:53:430:53:47

her up here in her bedroom,

0:53:470:53:49

wearing a dressing gown and sitting in a chair, just like an invalid.

0:53:490:53:54

Things were looking bad for Jane.

0:53:540:53:56

And she was only 41.

0:53:560:53:58

On 24th May, 1817, Jane and Cassandra made the 16-mile journey

0:54:010:54:07

to Winchester in their brother James' carriage.

0:54:070:54:11

They came to be near a doctor - Jane's last chance for a cure.

0:54:110:54:16

But she'd already made her will.

0:54:160:54:19

For two months, College Street was their home.

0:54:190:54:23

These rented rooms in the city centre were just the sort of place

0:54:230:54:26

that genteel old maids ended up.

0:54:260:54:29

My attendant is encouraging

0:54:450:54:48

and talks of making me quite well.

0:54:480:54:50

I live chiefly on the sofa...

0:54:510:54:53

..but I'm allowed to walk from one room to the other.

0:54:540:54:57

I've been out once in the sedan chair, and am to repeat it,

0:54:580:55:03

and be promoted to a wheelchair as the weather serves.

0:55:030:55:06

The upside was that Jane was living here with the family that she'd

0:55:130:55:17

selected for herself, spinsters looking out for each other.

0:55:170:55:21

She got this house because of her two good friends who live just

0:55:210:55:24

around the corner. And as Jane got sicker and sicker,

0:55:240:55:28

she was looked after here by her sister and her sister-in-law.

0:55:280:55:33

Jane spent the very last hours of her life with her head in her sister Cassandra's lap.

0:55:330:55:40

And then, very early in the morning of 18th July, 1817,

0:55:400:55:46

she slipped away in that room, just up there.

0:55:460:55:49

Six days later, Jane's body was borne along College Street.

0:55:570:56:02

Cassandra wrote,

0:56:060:56:08

"I watched the little mournful procession the length of the street.

0:56:080:56:11

"And when it turned from my sight, I had lost her for ever."

0:56:130:56:17

Walking alongside the coffin were three of Jane's brothers and a nephew -

0:56:200:56:25

the only mourners.

0:56:250:56:27

Jane was brought here, to Winchester Cathedral,

0:56:500:56:53

and placed in a vault on the North Aisle.

0:56:530:56:56

It was a prime location at last.

0:56:570:57:00

A black marble gravestone was laid over her.

0:57:010:57:05

The inscription mentions "the benevolence of her heart,

0:57:140:57:18

"the sweetness of her temper,

0:57:180:57:20

"and the extraordinary endowments of her mind."

0:57:200:57:24

That's as close as it gets to mentioning her novels.

0:57:240:57:28

When Jane died, she was just a youngish, unknown, frail woman.

0:57:280:57:33

Her name wasn't even printed in her books.

0:57:330:57:37

All this would change. A few years later,

0:57:370:57:40

one of the vergers of the cathedral was heard asking,

0:57:400:57:43

"Who is this Jane Austen woman that everybody's talking about?"

0:57:430:57:48

And now her fame almost eclipses that of the cathedral.

0:57:480:57:52

Today, Winchester Cathedral is perhaps best known as Jane's final home.

0:57:520:57:59

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