The Jane Austen Pilgrimage <3

So the day had finally come… The epic and long awaited pilgrimage to Jane Austen’s home! Lizzi and I spent most of our youth dreaming about just a few of her choice characters… Like, oh I don’t know… Mr. Darcy, Captain Wentworth, Colonel Brandon, Mr. Knightly, Edmund, Edward Ferrars, and Henry Tilney… <3 (ie. every single one of Jane’s time-less male protagonists!) We were so excited to be there that we literally seemed to revert to girlhood at the mere site of the house… Lots of giggling, pictures, and intense moments of quiet, attempting to savor every sensation (as if we might somehow will Jane herself to walk through the front door) ensued. So excited were we to finally be living out a journey that was dreamed up when we were 14 years old, that the little old ladies in the gift shop were actually in laughter at the site of us. They seemed thoroughly delighted that two young women had such stars in their eyes over their own favorite author… :)

And here is where the magic happened… The quaint home of Jane that facilitated her best years of writing… Nestled in the quiet, if not picturesque little village of Chawton. It was even more endearing to Jane than we’d imagined when we ‘d pictured her sitting by the window-bay scribbling our favorite literary characters into life. 

 

Once inside Lizzi and I savored everything,… Read every snippet of history, memorized every smell… Lizzi even rolled in Jane’s grass... Attempting to gleam some nugget of literary inspiration from her garden, where we were just certain Jane sat herself, dreaming up Mr. Darcy!

 

When I walked into Jane’s home the first thing I noticed was the piano-forte… And I was literally struck speechless when the very sweet lady monitoring the house, gestured towards it and asked if I would play something (I gather she assumed I played given the way I was drooling over the gorgeous instrument!)  And so I gingerly sat down, at which point a book of Clementi’s Sonatinas were found (as if Jane just knew that I also loved Clementi)… And I played. In Jane Austen’s home. Filling the room with the same tunes that (according to the lady there) Jane loved most. It was the very spot Jane herself used to sit every morning after breakfast and “avidly” play… And it was the most precious moment of my entire Jane Austen pilgrimage… <3

The close second in “surreal moments” of the day was in finding Jane’s writing desk, where she penned her stories every day like clockwork. All the novels we’ve so loved came to life on that desk, under her diligent hand. It looked right out the front window towards the meadows, just like Lizzi and I had always imagined… And as Lizzi described: “I was having trouble breathing… I just kept thinking: She. Was. Here.” :) Yes, that’s right. We are epic Jane Austen nerds. Haha

But apparently we aren’t the only ones… Because they make some of the most amazing, and hilarious Jane Austen memorabilia… And Lizzi now owns at least half of it. Haha ;) Case in point: 

After our visit to Chawton, we headed to Winchester Cathedral to pay our respects to Jane’s burial site. It’s shocking to think that she died at the young age of 41, in the prime of her writing career. It’s sad to imagine how many other beautiful works may have died with her…

    

We brought my much loved copy of Pride and Prejudice (evident from the fraying pages and cover) with us to meet its author… It isn’t my nicest or most expensive copy, but it was my first… My grandmother gave it to me when I was 11 years old, and told me that it was a classic that every young woman should read. And I did. Again, and again, and again. And every time I read one of Jane’s novels I learn something a little different about myself. Her stories, no matter how memorized they may be, still give me butterflies and speak to me in new ways… So thank you Jane!

With Love from Winchester and Chawton… <3 Mary Elizabeth