The afternoon was fading into the evening as we finished touring the garden of Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, and we decided to walk down the road to visit Chawton House, home of Jane’s brother, Edward. He inherited the estate, including the house where Jane lived, from the Knight family, who named him their heir. We knew it would be closed, but it was worth the five-minute walk to see a bit more of Chawton, the house, chapel, and grounds.
The Knight family built the house in the 1580s, but there was already a manor house on the estate dating back to 1224. It is a stunning old home, beautifully situated on a slight rise, so you can really appreciate it as you walk up the gravel drive. As we made the walk up the house, I thought about how many times Jane and her sister, Cassandra, must’ve made that walk to visit their brother. I also wondered why they didn’t live with their brother, since the house is sprawling, but I suppose the independence of having your own home and garden would’ve been valued.
Sadly, the gardens had just closed, so we weren’t able to see them, but even just the grounds and surrounding fields were beautiful and bucolic. There is an apartment available in the North Wing of the house for rent on Airbnb, or you can tour the garden, have a meal or tea in the tea room, and tour the house and library.
I wish we could’ve seen the inside of the house, especially the library and kitchen.
photo via Claire Lewis Photography 2019
The Chawton House library contains over 4,500 rare and early edition books and manuscripts by female authors, dating between 1660 and 1860, so that would’ve been special to visit!
I was satisfied with studying the exterior architecture for this visit, though. I still feel in awe of how old everything is in England and Europe. This house was already old when Jane visited.
This was one of the buildings on the estate, and Julia and I decided that it would do just fine for us.
We then walked down to the church on the estate, St. Nicolas Church. Jane’s sister and mother are both buried in the church’s graveyard.
Even walking through the little archway to the churchyard, you could imagine a scene from one of Jane’s novels coming to life there. A conversation after a Sunday service or a wedding.
I loved this sign in the church’s vestibule…
We walked back to the car, stopping to meet a few dogs along the way. My mom said life doesn’t get much better than being a dog in the English countryside. There were water bowls by shop doors, treat jars on checkout counters, and “dogs welcome” signs everywhere.
One thing I noticed is that I spotted feathers everywhere during our trip. They were scattered around the sidewalks, roads, lanes, and lawns. I mentioned this to Julia, and she said it was probably the work of foxes. I decided to pick up a pretty feather to press in my sketchbook and take home. I picked up a black and white feather off the sidewalk.
“That’s a pigeon feather.” Julia pointed out, insinuating that I might want to aim a little higher than an ordinary pigeon. So, I put it down and found another one that looked a bit more exotic. “Yeah, that’s a pigeon feather, too.” We laughed and decided I probably wouldn’t do better this late in the trip.
I was wishing I had thought of collecting bits to press in my sketchbook and journal sooner, but I did manage to pick up a pretty English oak leaf in the parking lot.
We ate at The Chicken & Hen Inn in Upper Froyle and all gave it favorable marks for the cozy environment, friendly service, and good food. I decided I couldn’t leave England without having proper “chips”, so I ordered a sandwich with a small salad and chunky French fries, aka “chips.” They were perfect and just as I imagined an English chip should be.
It was, sadly, time to go to our hotel at the airport. We decided months ago that, since our flight to Florence left early in the morning, we would stay at the Sofitel hotel connected to the British Airways terminal to save ourselves (and Julia) a ridiculously early wake-up time. We parted with hugs, warm wishes, and mutual feelings of affection. Not only did we have a wonderful taste of the Cotswolds and the English countryside, but we also had such a wonderful time together. Our online friendship, which spanned several years via FaceTime, Zoom, texts, and emails, carried over easily into real life. Julia and I already considered ourselves friends, but now that title feels even more justified. We were sad our time together was at an end.
After a travel, jetlag, and days packed with comings and goings, Mom and I were tired and planning an early bedtime. We checked into our room, which was beautiful and very comfortable, and settled in. Mom took a shower to get ready for bed while I wrote in my journal. I had missed the previous day, so there was a lot to write about before the details started to fade. I also worked on checking e-mail and uploading photos from my SD card to my laptop. It was a fortunate thing I checked my e-mail because one from British Airways caught my attention. Our flight for tomorrow morning was cancelled, and I needed to call their customer service number to get booked on a new flight.
I’ll spare all the details, but we were booked on four different flights from two different airports, which involved three visits to the concierge to change our stay duration and hire a taxi, then cancel it, before we were finally booked on a flight for Saturday morning. I didn’t get to sleep until after 2:00 am, not only because of the flight snafu, but because of some issue where our lights kept coming on in our room! It was like a kid was playing with the light switch, but it sorted itself out, and I finally got to sleep. We were supposed to leave early Friday for Florence, which would’ve given us a free day at the villa before the creative retreat began. Instead, we would spend our free day at the Sofitel at Heathrow.
We considered taking a day trip to Windsor or even trying to reconnect with Julia, but we were tired, it was pouring rain from the remnants of a hurricane, and we decided to rest at the hotel. They had an amazing breakfast buffet that we thoroughly enjoyed…
Since we were stuck at the airport hotel, we decided to eat a big late breakfast and then an early dinner.
By the time it was all said and done, more flights were cancelled, and we didn’t end up flying out until Saturday night. We missed the welcome dinner for the creative retreat and didn’t get to the villa until after midnight, but the delays (due to airline worker strikes) could’ve been much worse. We could’ve been stuck in the terminal with our bags already checked, sleeping on airport benches, for a day and a half. Instead, we stayed in a beautiful hotel with comfortable beds, a soaker tub, and delicious food. On top of that, British Airways reimbursed the cost of the hotel stay and the spendy buffet, so it was just a little hiccup on the way to where we were going, but it was as delightful a delay as one could imagine.
I took the free day to edit photos, write my first post about the Cotswolds, catch up on journaling and email, and rest. Mom even napped for a while. So, it did us some good to take a breath before starting the second leg of our trip in Tuscany…
If you missed any of my previous posts about our trip, you can read them here –
Arrival & Burford | “gateway to the Cotswolds”
Cirencester, Seasalt Cornwall, and Bourton-on-the-Water
The Thatched Cottage in Chipping Campden
Hidcote Manor | National Trust Home & Garden
Plein Air Painting at Hidcote Manor
Daylesford, holding history, and dinner at the Village Pub in Barnsley
Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, Hampshire
2 Responses
It makes me smile to read how you are in awe of the history of our buildings here in the UK. I guess we just take them for granted.
If you want more history than you should definitely visit York and particularly the Minster next time you get to England. Not only is the current Minster from the 1400s, there was a church there much earlier.
If you go down into the vaults you can see the Viking era building and further down there is still a Roman street, complete with culverts. They knew how to build them in those days!
Clare x
Help me if I’m wrong but wasn’t it Edward’s wife that didn’t want Jane, Cassandra and their mother living in the same house?