It was a sweet little town, definitely benefitting from Jane Austen’s presence, and we first stopped off at the house that her brother had inherited (from the Knight family, who hadn’t had an heir, so they adopted him to be their heir! A little bit like winning the lottery, that!) It had some lovely gardens and the interior was spectacular.
It’s been converted into the “Chawton Early Women Writers Library” so it has a lot of writers that I hadn’t heard of (being that, as my professor so aptly put it, “History tends to remember the men.”)
This sweet little dog was playing fetch with his owner. It was so adorable! He made me miss my dogs back home!
We toured the house and the church on the property, where Jane's mother and sister were buried...
And as we walked back into the village, I was distracted by the animals and insects...
And finally, we found Jane Austen’s house! (It wasn' t hard to find at all.)
It wasn’t as totally awesome as the Bronte house, but they did have a lock of her hair,
and a piano, which she wouldn’t have played, but is very similar to one she would have. I glanced at the music and saw that I knew it, and the museum people gave me permission to play it!
It was SO COOL. It was a beautiful, if very out of tune, instrument.
(I love that quote. :) )
In the gift shop, I bought matching mugs for my friend Ally and I – they have Colin Firth’s face on them, from when he played Mr Darcy in the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice. I couldn’t help it – they were just too ridiculously awesome to pass up. (And come on – coffee in the morning with Mr Darcy? You can’t say no.)
After that we stopped briefly (and I really mean briefly! We only had half an hour to spare!) at Winchester Cathedral to see Jane Austen's grave.
The brass plaque is hard to read even in real life! But it was an awesome thing to see.
Enough of Chawton and Winchester! Back to Oxford we go! :)
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