- In Hampshire: Steventon
(near Basingstoke) in which Jane Austen lived
1775-1801, and Chawton
(near Alton) in which she lived 1809-1817, are represented by a single black
dot in northwestern Hampshire ("HANTS" on the map). For other places in northwestern
Hampshire connected with Jane Austen's relatives, see the Austen
family genealogical charts.
Winchester,
where she died, is in central Hampshire.
Southampton
(where she briefly went to be taught in 1783, and lived 1808-1809), and Portsmouth
(which plays a rôle in Mansfield
Park and was important for her naval
brothers), are both on the Hampshire coast. In light of the controversy
over the public kiss in the recent movie version of Persuasion,
here's a
.gif image showing a couple in late 18th-century or early 19th-century
Portsmouth osculating right out in the open on the street (gasp!) (be
aware that this material isn't appropriate for those who would be shocked
by shameless smooching, so that discretion is advised).
- In Berkshire (to the north of Hampshire): Reading
is where Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra
went to boarding school in 1785-1786.
- In Gloucester/Somerset:
Bath (marked on the
map) was a health resort, retirement town, and provincial outpost of fashionable
life; Jane Austen's parents were married there, she lived there 1801-1806,
and her father is buried there. Bath had been fashionable with high society
(Beau Nash and his dandies) earlier in the 18th century, but had become less
so by Jane Austen's day. Bath is important in
her novels Northanger Abbey
and Persuasion (and has a
minor `off-stage' rôle in Mansfield
Park), though it was not Jane Austen's favorite place to live in
("Bath is still Bath", as she wrote in a
letter of November 6, 1813). Clifton, in which Jane
Austen lived briefly in 1806, and which is the target of one of Catherine
Morland's excursions in Northanger
Abbey, is near Bristol, towards the coast northwest of Bath.
- The seaside town of Lyme
was visited by Jane Austen in 1803-1804, and plays
a significant rôle in the novel Persuasion.
Her possible tragically-ended early 1800's
affair of the heart occurred along the Devonshire coast, west of Lyme.
- In Kent the estate of Godmersham
was inherited by her brother Edward. The
Austen family originally came from Kent.