On the map
a black dot is placed on the three counties in which most of the action of the
novel occurs, and several other places in the novel were marked where there
was room on the map
- Hertfordshire
- Imaginary places:
- Longbourn (residence
of the Bennets), Netherfield
Park (residence of the Bingleys),
Lucas Lodge,
the residence of the Lucases,
and the village of Meryton,
where the militia regiment is quartered for a time. Less important places
in the vicinity are Oakham
Mount (to which Darcy
and Elizabeth walk on the
morning after their éclaircissement), the memorably-named town
of ---- (where the London
coaches stop, and the George Inn is located), and the houses or estates
of Ashworth, Haye-Park, Purvis Lodge, and Stoke (all of which Mrs. Bennet
considers as possible residences
for Lydia and Wickham).
- Derbyshire:
- Imaginary places:
- Pemberley (residence
of Mr. Darcy) and the
villages of Lambton
(former residence of Mrs. Gardiner)
and Kympton (where
Wickham was to be the clergyman).
- Real places:
- Scenic and touristic locations in Derbyshire mentioned in connection
with Elizabeth and the
Gardiners' tour are Bakewell,
Chatsworth, Matlock,
Dove Dale, and the
Peak.
- Kent:
- Real places:
- The black dot on Kent is placed in the approximate
location of Westerham,
in northwest Kent near London.
Ramsgate is a sea-side
resort, where Georgiana Darcy
stayed for a summer.
- Imaginary places:
- Rosings (the residence
of Lady Catherine) and
Hunsford (where Mr. Collins
is rector) are near Westerham.
- Sussex:
- Real places:
- On the southeast coast the town of Brighton
is the fashionable sea-side resort, with a temporary military camp, where
Lydia goes. In real life it was
the hangout of the Prince Regent and
his decadent coterie; in a letter
of January 8th 1799 to Cassandra,
Jane Austen wrote "I assure you that I dread
the idea of going to Brighton as much as you do, but I am not without
hopes that something may happen to prevent it". Eastbourne
is another seaside town on the Sussex coast, to the east of Brighton.
-
"Here I am once more in this scene of dissipation and vice, and
I begin already to find my morals corrupted."
-- Jane Austen, letter of August 1796
London is not marked on
the map, since there was no room to do so (it is southeastern Middlesex).
The London area had over a million inhabitants (the first city in Europe to
do so), and was several times larger than any other city in Britain; London
was often associated, in the imagination of Jane Austen's
day, with loose morals in both low life and high society -- a scene of fashionable
dissipations and a dangerous example to the rest of the country (thus the
opportunistic and amoral Lady Susan says "London
will always be the fairest field of action, however my views may be directed").
Bromley is between Westerham
and London, Epsom is on the
southern-eastern approaches to London, and Clapham
is a neighbourhood on the south side of the Thames (across from the `City'
proper). Cheapside,
where the Bingley sisters accuse Mr. Gardiner of living (he actually lives
in Gracechurch Street, further east) is an unfashionably
commercial neighbourhood in the `City', near St. Paul's. Grosvenor
street, where Mr. Hurst and Louisa live, is in a much more fashionable
neighborhood towards the West End.
Barnet and Hatfield
are coaching stations to the north of London, through which Lydia
and Wickham would probably have
passed if they had been going to Scotland.
- The Lake country (rugged,
scenic, and with literary associations) is in the far northwest of England;
and Newcastle (where
Wickham is stationed after his marriage
to Lydia) is in Northumberland in
the northeast.
Gretna Green, just
over the Scottish border, was the Nevada of its day (taking advantage of the
laxer Scottish marriage laws during the 1754-1856 period) -- quickie marriages,
minors don't need parental permission, few questions asked. According to Caroline
Norton, "Gretna" was "not... of itself a city sacred to Hymen, but the
nearest village across the boundary of England, that could be reached by enamoured
couples".
