Like a lot of people, I have a fascination with writers’ houses. Recently, I had the chance to visit the cottage in Chawton, Hampshire, which Jane Austen’s family acquired around 1809. The author’s brother, Edward, gifted it to his mother, Cassandra, and his two siblings: Jane and her elder sister (also called Cassandra). During her time there, Jane wrote, revised and had published all of her novels: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. The house is now a museum dedicated to the writer.
This visit (and another one to Rudyard Kipling’s house, which I will write about at some point) provided an interesting insight into an author which I thought I knew, but clearly didn’t. My view of Austen had always been slightly melancholy - that she was a disappointed spinster who struggled to sell her novels. In fact, despite a rejection letter from publisher Thomas Cadell in the first room (on the bureau, above), Austen did have reasonable success as a writer in her lifetime.
What became clear from visiting the house was that her family were enormously proud and supportive of her writing. For example, her sister, Cassandra, ran the household and gave Jane time to write; her father wrote on her behalf to offer Pride and Prejudice to a publisher, and her brother, Henry, helped to get Sense and Sensibility published and also became Jane’s first biographer, penning a tribute to her in an edition of Northanger Abbey published in 1817 (on display).
Jane Austen’s desk is perhaps the key artefact and it’s so tiny! It’s not clear why she chose such a small desk - perhaps it fitted neatly into this niche by the window, where she could also observe the comings and goings of her neighbours? It has a humbleness which seems to reflect her personality.
Another evocative feature of the house is the superb restoration job on the wallpaper, scraps of which have been found and carefully reproduced in three of the rooms. In the dining room, where Austen wrote, she would have looked up to see a vibrant ‘arsenic’ green wallpaper with a pattern of interlocking leaves. This is the ‘Chawton Leaf’ design which was discovered in 2018 - it has a fantastic flocked border in black, which you can see in the picture of the whole room (above). The scrap that was discovered - in a cupboard - had a rare tax stamp on the back, which allowed it to be dated somewhere between 1712 and 1836, so it’s definitely within the period that Austen was living there.
Napoleon is supposed to have been poisoned by his arsenic wallpaper, and for a time it was speculated that Austen’s death also stemmed from same cause. However, a volunteer told us that the current thinking is that Austen died of Lupus - we shall probably never know.
Another side-note about the wallpaper is that you can buy three of Austen’s novels in the shop from the Macmillan Collector’s Library, all of which have the house’s wallpaper as cover art. I was sorely tempted by these because they’re affordable and include Hugh Thompson’s gorgeous illustrations. If they had produced Persuasion (my favourite of her novels) in that edition, I definitely would have bought it!
There are a few touching, personal objects in the house, including Austen’s turquoise ring and two topaz crosses on gold chains. The latter were gifted to Jane and Cassandra by their younger brother, Charles - it’s not known which necklace belonged to which sister. Charles was in the Royal Navy and purchased the crosses with part of the prize money he received from the capture of an enemy ship. Pretending to be indignant, Jane wrote:
… of what avail is it to take prizes if he lays out the produce in presents to his Sisters. He has been buying Gold chains and Topaze (sic) Crosses for us; – he must be well scolded …I shall write again by this post to thank and reproach him. We shall be unbearably fine.
Thomas Hardy's cottage in Dorset is worth a visit but choose a quiet time. I think more people visit his house than read his books (or his poetry, which I prefer). Also Rembrandt house in Amsterdam.
Persuasion is my favorite as well and strangely enough I've also been to Kipling's house.