It came as a considerable shock when her parents suddenly announced in 1801 that the family would be moving away to Bath. Mr Austen would give the Steventon living to his son James and retire to Bath with his wife and two daughters. At this time Jane was 26 years old. The next four years were going to be difficult ones for Jane Austen.
They lived at several addresses in Bath such as Green Park and Gay Street, but for the most part at 4 Sydney Place.
Today, visitors to Bath can take those very walks, and see the very places where Austen’s characters danced and dreamed. An hour and a half from London, Bath is a beautifully preserved Georgian town, a spa town, as it was in Austen’s day. The streets, crescents and gardens that Austen saw are much as they were in her day.
The Ball Room
This is the largest 18th century room in Bath.
Dancing was very popular
and balls were held
at least twice a week,
attracting 800 to 1,200 guests at a time.
The high ceiling provided good ventilation
on crowded ball nights
and windows set at a high level
prevented outsiders from looking in.
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Only two of Jane Austen's novels are set in Bath: Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published in 1818. Both mention the Assembly Rooms, which Jane Austen herself visited. the Assembly Roomswhere people would gather to play cards, dance and take tea
'Mrs Allen was so long in dressing, that they did not enter the ball-room till late. The season was full, the room crowded, and the two ladies squeezed in as well as they could. As for Mr Allen, he repaired directly to the card-room, and left them to enjoy a mob by themselves.' Northanger Abbey, 1818
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Austen’s city still remembers her; at the Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street visitors can learn all about Bath in her day and the importance of Bath in her life and work. In September, the annual Jane Austen Festival celebrates the beloved author with nine days of exhibitions, performances and literary events.
The main highlights include the Pump Room - the social heart of the city during Austen's time where people registered on arrival in the city and took the water.
The Royal Crescent - the most impressive address, where people enjoyed promenading and generally being seen;
Gravel Walk - the location of a touching love scene in the novel 'Persuasion';
A short stroll from the Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street is Gravel Walk, just off Queen’s Parade Place. Known as something of a Lover’s Lane in Jane Austen’s day, the path was a route for sedan chairs heading to and from the town centre and following th…
The Sedan Chair was invented in France and later introduced to Britain. It consisted of a covered box carried on two poles, and proved invaluable to rich people traveling to social gatherings in their finery, in the days when there were no pavements and the streets could become very muddy. The entrances to the grand Georgian houses were made large enough to enable chairs to be carried right upto the door so the occupant would not get wet!
In 1806 they moved from Bath, first to Clifton, and then, in autumn 1806, to Southampton. Two years later, Jane remembered (in a letter to Cassandra) with "what happy feelings of Escape!" she had left Bath.
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