Jane Austen's house, Chawton, Hampshire

last year Easter holiday, we visited our family friend, Gill who lives in a small village outside Winchester in Hampshire county. Winchester is the first capital of England, located just an hour  south west of London.

Hampshire has a strong connection with Jane Austen, celebrated as one of England's great novelist who started writing her first novel, Pride and Prejudice when she was 20 and published eighteen years later.

She was born in 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire. At 25, she moved with family to Bath, where her father had decided to retire. But when he died in 1805, she returned with her mother and her sister Cassandra to Hampshire to live in Southampton. Four years later, they moved to a cottage in the village of Chawton, also in Hampshire, now a museum to her work. Here, Jane began to write seriously, working on Sense and Sensibility (published in 1811) followed by Mansfield Park in 1814 and Emma in 1815. Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published after her death.

The village attracts most local tourists. last year was 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice and a theatre company performed short scenes from the story book.

 

Jane Austen's House Museum