Taylor Talks: Touching Greatness

Anyone who knows me knows exactly how big a Jane Austen fanatic I am. I can’t really remember a time when Pride and Prejudice wasn’t my favorite book. If I could write six books that are half as good as hers, I will be able to die happy. I’ve posted numerous entries about my adoration of Jane, a woman before her time who still confounds literary scholars as far as categorization goes.

At the very top of my To-Do list while I was here (Ok, really my To-Do list for life) was to visit Jane Austen’s House in Chawton and on Thursday, I checked that off the list!!!! My friend Susan and I hopped a train out to the little town where the British branch of the Mommy Mafia (Tara) lives and she drove us down into Hampshire to make our pilgrimage to visit Jane. Hampshire itself is beautiful. When you think of stereotypical English countryside, you’re probably summoning up images of Hampshire.

Susan and Me in front of Jane's House

Jane’s house is wonderful. They’ve done a wonderful job of preserving the cottage she lived in with her mother and her sister up until a few months before her death. If the furnishings weren’t original, they were reproductions or furnishings that belonged to some member of Jane’s large family (she had 6 brothers and a sister). Along with a ridiculous amount of memorabilia once owned by the Austen family, they also had a very cool collection of hand-stitched dresses that are reproductions of Regency fashions.

But the best part, it must be said was The Desk. Set off to one side of the dining room, they have Jane’s actual writing desk where she wrote ALL of her novels. It’s positioned next to a window that overlooks Winchester Road, a major coaching road at the time. So Jane would sit there every morning and write. Or, if she had writer’s block (because I’m sure even Jane got writer’s block from time to time – it’s actually a known fact since there’s little evidence of her writing in the 10 years between leaving her childhood home at Steventon and settling in Chawton), she could look out on the road and the pub across the street and observe the people that went through. I can just see her sitting there, making up little stories about the strangers she saw, or gathering up gossip about the people she knew.

Back to the best part- I got to touch The Desk (!!!!!!) It was so cool to get to touch the desk used by one of my literary idols. I’ve only ever done that once before (Laura Ingalls Wilder’s desk at Rocky Ridge Farm), but I was quite honestly too young to remember it very vividly (sorry Mom and Carrie). In fact, we may have just gotten to see the desk. At Jane’s house, you can touch it. It was so awesome! Amazing! Wonderful!

Afterwards, we went into the little shop they’ve made out of one of the outbuildings that came with the house and, after MUCH deliberation, I got a coffee mug and a copy of Persuasion (which is now tied with P&P as my favorite book), as well as a key chain and magnet to remember my pilgrimage. Once that monumental decision was made, we went and had lunch at the pub across the street which has been there since the 1600s.