Jane Austen Mysteries 08 Jane and His Lordship's Legacy (36 page)

For those who wish to know more of Jane Austen's neigh-borhood in Hampshire, I must recommend Rupert Willough-by's slim volume,
Chawton: Jane Austen's Village,
The Old Rectory, Sherborne St. John, 1998;
Jane Austen and Alton,
by Jane Hurst, copyright Jane Hurst, 2001; Nigel Nicolson's
The World of Jane
Austen,
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1991;
Jane Austen, A
Family Record,
by W. Austen-Leigh, R. A. Austen-Leigh, and Deirdre Le Faye, The British Library, 1989; and
Jane Austen's Let-
ters,
edited by Deirdre Le Faye, Oxford University Press, 1995.

Chawton Great House was sold in 1993 to Ms. Sandy Lerner, an American, who has completely refurbished the house and grounds as a Center for the Study of Early English Women's Writing--a use Jane Austen might have approved, although she would certainly have lamented its inevitable passage from fam-ily hands. Chawton Cottage is in the care of the Jane Austen Memorial Trust, and can be toured most days of the year.

Stephanie Barron

Golden, Colorado

January 2004