Chawton Cottage

So many people have had the pleasure of visiting Jane Austen's house, a cottage in Chawton which is now a museum, and published their pictures of the house and gardens online. These photos by Sarah on Flickr show the wallpaper on the walls (a 1988 pattern by Laura Ashley), a different perspective of her bedroom, and, most interestingly, Jane's silhouette framed and hanging on the wall as well as several silhouettes of her relatives. This photo album on Flickr shows the kitchen garden at Chawton Cottage.


This link leads to a map with more images of Chawton, some quite lovely.

Click here to listen to a 9-minute BBC4 podcast of an interview with Sandy Lerner, the American silicon valley millionaire who purchased Chawton House, located near Chawton Cottage and former home of Jane Austen's brother, and created a women's literary centre and library there. Sandy has read Persuasion 70 times!

"Enter Sandy Lerner. It is, of course, a truth universally acknowledged, that a single Californian, in possession of several hundred million dollars, must be in want of a Project. Ms Lerner, in her late 30s, is a farmer's daughter who in 1984 founded, with her husband, a computer company. They sold control of Cisco in 1990 for dollars 170m ( pounds 110m), and further shares in it for many more millions when it went public a year later. Ms Lerner is reclusive, an animal-rights activist, and claims to hold daily conversations with Disraeli. She has spent dollars 115m setting up a charitable foundation. - Chawton is crumbling as Janeites cross swords, the Independent, UK

Other links:

• Money's My Little Defining Thing, Telegraph.co.uk - more about the Chawton House Library
• Chawton House Library
• The Female Spectator, Newsletter of the Chawton House Library
• Chawton House Library Visiting Fellowships
  

Tea at Chawton & Miss Austen Regrets

Imagine sitting in Jane Austen’s kitchen at Chawton, sipping tea and chatting with an elegantly turned out English gentleman! Tough work if you can get it. Writer Gretchen Kelly of Single Minded Women had that incredible privilege recently, and this blogger is pea green with envy.

Her travel to Jane Austen’s home in the village of Chawton found her discussing our favorite authoress' life and flirtations as a guest of the Curator.

"She basically never found anyone good enough for her," Tom Carpenter, Curator and Trustee of the Jane Austen House Museum at Chawton. But it wasn't for lack of trying," he adds mischievously, pointing to a stack of Xeroxed letters in a back office. "Those are all letters to and from her…well in those days they called them gentlemen callers, but you would say, "boyfriends," wouldn't you?"

It is quite interesting to have an inside view of Jane Austen’s home and her social life from such a venerable source as a precursor to tonight’s biopic on Jane Austen’s life, Miss Austen Regrets, presented by Masterpiece Classic on PBS at 9:00 pm. You can read the entire article here.

For Ms. Place's review of Miss Austen Regrets, go to Jane Austen's World. For Laurel Ann's review, go to Remotely Connected. We are most anxious to read your opinions, so be sure to leave your comments.

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose