The “real” Meryton? (Updated)
Steve wrote to ask,
Do you know of anywhere where I might find more information on the theory of Harpenden as Meryton?
We were not even aware that WAS a theory, though it sounds vaguely familiar…anybody else have any idea?
ETA: Steve sent us another e-mail to say that he read of the theory in an essay in Persuasions 27, pp. 234-241. On the way out the door, we grabbed that issue of Persuasions and Deirdre Le Faye’s wonderful book, Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels, which has been referenced in the comments, and read up on the two theories during our train trip.
The essay in Persuasions is by Dr. Kenneth Smith, a lecturer in criminology, so presumably he’s into all that CSI stuff. 
He starts it off with a sentence that we think is just perfect to keep in mind:
Pride and Prejudice is a work of fiction, of course, and the Bennet family no more actually lived at Longbourn than Sherlock Holmes lived at 221b Baker Street.
Very true! That being said, Dr. Smith presents some very interesting information. We are told that Meryton is a market town and is about a mile from Longbourn. Another nearby market town is given the usual “Blank” name, and Elizabeth, Jane, and Maria Lucas pass through it on the way from London to their homes. Since they don’t pass through Meryton on the way back from the trip, Dr. Smith posits that Longbourn lies closer to London, likely south or southwest of Meryton. While Jane is vague on the details of the country villages and towns, she places the Gardiners’ London home on Gracechurch Street, which is a real street. Furthermore, when Elizabeth and the Lucases travel to Kent, they break their trip at the Gardiners’ house, which we are told is a trip of twenty-four miles. Harpenden lies twenty-four miles from Gracechurch Street. Also, there is a village about two miles away from Harpenden called Redbourn, which Dr. Smith posits might have inspired the name of Longbourn; though the hamlet of Harpenden Bury, which no longer exists, was probably a better location for Longbourn, being only a mile from Harpenden.
Dr. Smith also points out that a village and great house called Kimpton — the same name as the clerical living held for Wickham — is in about the same location that Netherfield Park would have been if Harpenden were indeed Jane Austen’s inspiration for Meryton.
Steve adds in his note that a family called Bennet owned a small estate in the Harpenden area. (We personally think that Jane got the name Bennet from Fanny Burney’s Cecilia, from which she took the title Pride and Prejudice and, we think, some other inspiration; though it’s quite possible that she chose the name Bennet from the family in the area since it was already in this book that she so enjoyed.)
Deirdre Le Faye adds a further clue in her book, that Longbourn lies within ten miles of the Great North Road, now called the A1000. She wrote that if the towns of Meryton and Blank lie to the west of this road, they are likely Hemel Hempstead and Watford; if they lie to the east, they are likely Hertford and Ware. Later in the book, she says, we can deduce that they lie to the east, so Meryton is Hertford and Blank is Ware. Ms. Le Faye also says that it is unlikely that Jane Austen ever visited Hertfordshire herself, but she had family connections in the area that could have told her about it; and we think it is quite likely that she used maps to keep the geography more or less straight in her head.
While these kind of mental exercises are a lot of geeky fun, we caution our Gentle Readers to not read too much into them. However, we find this sort of thing useful while writing fan fiction, and other writers likely will as well.
