Top 10 Spiritual Jane Austen Places
Beliefnet has put together a photo gallery of the Top 10 Spiritual Jane Austen Places in the UK, based on Lori Smith’s Book A Walk With Jane Austen. The places are spiritual in the religious sense and in the Janeite sense as well. 
May 12th, 2008 at 9:27 am
I am bemused by the poll. How on earth can anyone regard Lyme Park, which Jane Austen never saw in her life, as having any spiritual significance (even Colin Firth’s most determined fans hardly confuse him with God) or any connection to her? And there are bits of inaccurate information in there - the Roman Baths, after a major clean-up of the water, are once again usable by the public and you certainly can’t see the red riding habit Mrs Austen was married in at Chawton or anywhere else, as that thrifty and unsentimental lady cut it up and made riding coats for her youngest sons from the material. As she wasnt drawn or painted in it you can’t even get an accurate replica, so presumably what they have is a replica, or even genuine, typical habit of the era. Still, sloppiness apart, the pictures are all lovely.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:20 am
I’m sorry I missed the Jane Austen connection when I visited Christ Church Cathedral. I was too busy searching the Burne-Jones St. Frideswide window for its unique depiction, in stained glass, of a Victorian toilet.
I was also confused by the bit about the Roman Baths, which our Editrix recently reminded us “weren’t a feature of Bath in Jane Austen’s time.”
For me, the most spiritual Jane Austen experience was standing in her room at Chawton. I could almost feel her presence there, and got a sense of the miracle of so much genius compressed into such a relatively short and ordinary life.
May 12th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Kathleen–the Roman baths are usable? I know they opened the Bath Spa, but that’s actually in the Cross Bath/Hot Bath complex, sort of behind the Roman Baths. I was in Bath last two years and a half ago, though, so perhaps something has happened I didn’t know about! I was under the impression that since the Roman baths are open to the sun, they can’t keep the algae from growing. When the Romans used it, it had a roof. (And amazingly, the plumbing still works!)
I got that it felt spiritual in the religious sense since it dated (almost) from the time of Christ, or at least early Christianity, and also Bath itself has obvious Jane Austen connections. I certainly enjoyed my tour of the Baths but I didn’t really connect it with Jane Austen in any way, knowing that the excavations began long after her death.
I love Bath. I know Jane hated it but I love it. I understand why she preferred to live in the country, though! Which reminds me–the tourism workers in Bath, when our Janeite tendencies were revealed, all were very quick to inform us that Jane Austen HAAAAAATED Bath. The informants ranged from the very nice tour bus lady, when we inquired about how one might go about seeking out the summit of Beechen Cliff (dead giveaway), who seemed almost regretful at having to burst our bubble, to the walking tour guide, who practically bared her teeth at me and hissed as she told me, “She used to CRY IN THE CARRIAGE when she had to come here!” Okay, A. What? Cried in the carriage? News to me; B. I knew she didn’t like living in Bath already; and C. So what? Jane set two books there and I still squeed at the top of Milsom-street when I looked up and saw EDGAR’S BUILDINGS carved on the facade, vengeful walking tour guide or no. (And the assistant/trainee tour guide kind of glommed onto my friend and me, because she liked Jane Austen, too, and took special care to point Jane things out to us.)
I will add that the bus driver (the regular city bus, not a tour bus) who dropped us off at Camden Crescent seemed completely unaware of the Austen associations of that address, and when he saw our cameras, suggested we might find Lansdown Crescent more photogenic. Imagine what Sir Walter Elliot would say.
May 12th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
“…the very nice tour bus lady, when we inquired about how one might go about seeking out the summit of Beechen Cliff (dead giveaway), who seemed almost regretful at having to burst our bubble…”
How was your bubble burst, Mags? Do you mean to say that when I climbed those hundreds of steps and took all those photographs overlooking Bath, that wasn’t Beechen Cliff?
May 12th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Oh, did you go up Jacob’s Ladder? We came down that way–but cheated on the way up. On the advice of the nice tour bus lady, we got a (public city) bus to Bear Flat (same day as Camden Crescent–we got a day pass) and then inquired directions from a friendly shopkeeper. She directed us through an Edwardian-period housing development in which the streets were all named after writers (EXCEPT JANE AUSTEN! HUMPH!). She warned us that it was “steep.” Yep.
Alexandra Park is lovely, though, and the view is great!
I meant that she burst our Happy Janeite in Bath, Home of Happy Jane Austen bubble. Not that we had one to begin with, but she seemed to think we might.
Us: What would be the best way to get to the top of Beechen Cliff?
Nice Tour Bus Lady: Oh! Jane Austen fans, are you? (like I said–dead giveaway–not just Austen fans but TILNEY fans.)
Us: Oh, yes! Here to make the pilgrimage!
NTBL (hesitantly): You DO know she didn’t…really…like…
Us: Oh, yes, yes, we know.
NTBL: Very well then–you could go up Jacob’s Ladder.
Us: Uh, that sounds not fun.
NTBL: Well, there’s a bus to Bear Flat.
Us: BUS! YES!
I’m glad we did go that way, because it had rained quite heavily the day before and Jacob’s Ladder was not only steep but treacherously slippery.
May 12th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Hmm, this reminds me of the man in Winchester who told us that he did not want to burst our bubble, but Chawton Cottage is just a house; after which he proceeded to boast of knowing Colin Firth’s parents. Luckily, I had been in the country long enough to learn the British stare. I used it on him as well as I could until I thought his eyeballs were melted enough.
(That Stonehenge, though: that was just a bunch of rocks)
May 13th, 2008 at 3:40 am
>(That Stonehenge, though: that was just a bunch of rocks)
WHAT???!!!
Now you are bursting my bubble and even a bigger one of my older daughter’s.
I found Stonehenge ethereal and surreal and all such words.
The history of their construction itself is mind blowing.. To have them stand erect, after having transferred them from a great distance made me feel very very small inspite of our cranes and all the transporting and construction super abilities.
And to have actually constructed ball and socket joint-like structures to place the horizontal rocks on the vertical ones!!! Amazing!!! Amazing!!!!
We got totally engulfed in the haunting spirituality of the place.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:22 am
When we were standing at Jane Austen’s grave in Winchester Cathedral, we overheard a verger giving a tour to a group of English tourists. He claimed that after the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, the BBC received inquiries from the American media, who wanted to know if Jane Austen had written anything else, and how she might be contacted for an interview. He was delighted with the stupidity of Americans. Then, realizing we weren’t part of his group, he looked at us sheepishly and asked, “You aren’t Americans, are you?”
May 13th, 2008 at 8:28 am
This is also mentioned in the official book about *Making of Pride and Prejudice*.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I’m sure I read that they had cleaned up the actual Roman Baths with National Lottery funding, but I may be wrong or misremembering. At any rate, they certainly were not, as you say, anything much to do with Jane Austen, and I can’t say I found them spiritual (maybe if you were a worshipper of Sulis Minerva) though they were very interesting. I love Bath too - and I don’t believe Jane Austen always hated it. She didn’t want to live there, which is not the same thing, and maybe her enforced residence put her off the place, but I find it hard to believe that she didn’t enjoy her visits as a young girl. Or that she ever cried in a carriage about anything at all.
May 14th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Reeba– I felt exactly the same about Stonehenge! I just wanted to sit and sit and sit and never have to leave–which consequently made me late getting back onto the tour bus.
Mags & Kathleen: I do think that the Roman Baths are very spiritual, but not because they have anything to do with Christianity (they don’t–that would be like saying because a Shinto temple in Japan was built around the same time as the rise of Islam, it should be special to Muslims), but because people have found them to be a healing a spiritual place for millennia, long before the Romans. (Also, I happen to have a much more earth-based bent to my spirituality, so that’s probably why they were so amazing for me).
And, yeah, I also can’t see how Lyme Park is particularly spiritual. Beautiful, yes, so if that’s spiritual for you, then I guess so. But otherwise? Not seeing it.
Then again, I can’t really see the connection for most of the locations listed.
May 15th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Perhaps the meaning of ’spiritual’ used on that blog is in the same sense as mine.
Meaning - a connection with spirit/soul, and not something that is limited to a religious connection.
In that sense anything can become spiritual for you.
Personally I sense the spiritual atmosphere even if it has nothing to do with the religion I follow.
So Roman Baths, Stonehenge etc definitely hold a strong spiritual atmosphere for me.
Similarly, Jane Austen places like Chawton Cottage etc are spiritual for me because these places connect with my spirit/soul.
And I can understand if for some people Lyme Park has spiritual significance, though there I don’t feel any. A tremendous liking for it, perhaps.
May 19th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
thanks for posting this, Mags. Yeah, the definition of spiritual is rather loose, and purposely so. I thought perhaps pic after pic of stained glass windows would get old, and these were places that, if not directly Christian, were incredibly meaningful to me in my pursuit of Austen (and in some cases like the Baths, had been used for worship of other kinds).
When I was there I desperately wanted to get in the Baths (which I believe are still unusable) and the guide told me they aren’t allowed to use them anymore, and how they used to have toga parties there. Wouldn’t that have been fun?!
Re: the red riding habit, what they have at Chawton house is one of the coats Mrs. Austen made for Frank (I believe). Knowing the history of that garment, it meant a lot to me to see it.
And perhaps the only “spiritual” connection with Lyme Park is that it is related to the cult of Colin Firth, for which I apologize!