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).
- Go to "Hampshire is Jane Austen Country" (official county site)
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.
- A rough map of Bath ca. 1800 is available.
