Chawton
Steventon church
Chawton Church
Jane Austen Tour Program
Friday . Departure from London for the Wheatsheaf Inn at North Waltham, Hampshire, which was an important posting-house in the early nineteenth-century. Jane would walk from her home in Chawton to collect the family mail here. We visit Winchester Cathedral where Jane Austen is buried and take part in Evensong a special experience. Overnight accommodation in Hampshire hotel.
Saturday . Visit Jane Austen’s home in Chawton, where she lived for the last eight years of her life, and the museum which houses a fine range of Austen memorabilia. Jane moved here in 1809 with her mother and sister Cassandra, and lived in the former bailiff’s house on the opulent Chawton Estate, which belonged to her fortunate brother Edward who had been adopted by a wealthy, childless couple, the Knights. Chawton is known as Jane’s literary home, and it was here that she revised, and decided to publish, classics earlier written at Steventon, such as 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Sense and Sensibility'. Close by is St Nicholas’ Church, where Jane’s mother and sister are buried. Halt at the old posting inn at Deane Gate, where Jane’s brother once failed to obtain a seat, as the coach was full. Follow the route often taken by Jane herself to Steventon, admiring the country life so vividly reproduced in her novels. Visit the site of Steventon Rectory, where Jane was born the seventh of eight children in 1775, where she spent the first twenty-five years of her life and where her father was rector. Here she wrote the initial drafts of 'Northanger Abbey', 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'Pride and Prejudice'. Overnight accommodation in Hampshire hotel.
Sunday
. Today we visit Bath. We enjoy a walking tour of the places where Jane lived, walked, visited, and shopped. Places made famous in her Bath novels; "Northanger Abbey" and "Persuasion". Visit the Jane Centre and enjoy the authentic period atmosphere and watch the video of Jane Austen's Bath. Lunch at leisure. Return to London with option to stop en route to visit the 18th century mansion Basildon Park, the location in the recent film 'Pride & Prejudice' for Netherfield home of Mr Bingley and the house of destiny where Elizabeth first meets Mr Darcy.