2025 Marks the 250th Anniversary of the Author’s Birth
Despite having lived in Central London for nearly three decades, I regret not fully exploring the rural landscape. Sure, London is great. But there’s more to England. Tour the lush green countryside dotted with manor estates steeped in history, depicting scenes like those we’ve achingly admired in captivating film adaptations of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.
On a recent visit, the South of England was my focus. The trip was planned out around stays in three utterly charming English country houses belonging to THE PIG collection that married up with Jane Austen’s “footsteps” of two-and-a-half centuries ago.
Bath: River Avon and the Roman Baths
A train from London’s Paddington Station took me to historic, honey-colored Bath Spa in Somerset before traveling on to Chawton in Hampshire, down to the seaside town of Lyme Regis in Dorset and on to Winchester in the New Forest.
This itinerary focused on Jane Austen in anticipation of 2025 events being planned around the 250th anniversary of the celebrated author’s birth in 1775. One of the world’s best-known and admired English language novelists — who died at just 41 years of age — her works are at the center of scholarly debate and a diverse fan culture.
In the Footsteps of Jane Austen
Jane Austen: Begin in Bath
Blessed with natural thermal springs made famous by the Romans, the UNESCO World Heritage City of Bath is high on a list of must-see places, receiving more than six million visitors every year. Many of these visitors also come to learn more about the city’s most famous resident; Jane Austen lived here for five years during Bath’s fashionable early 19th century.
At a small museum housed in a Georgian building, visitors are greeted by period costumed guides to learn about her life and times, including two books partially written and set here, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.
A highlight of the Jane Austen Festival in Bath is a Grand Regency Costumed Promenade on September 13 during the 10-day event on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025 through Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025.
Jane Austen: Coastal Vacations in Dorset
A fashionable seaside resort in the early 19th century, Jane Austen was inspired by two vacations to Lyme Regis in Dorset. Taken with the coastal town, she used it as a setting in Persuasion, a novel published six months after her death. Today, visitors to Lyme Regis come to walk the town’s harbor wall known as The Cobb, a stone pier believed to date from the 13th century. One can stroll along the Jurassic Coast, scouring sandy beaches for 200 million year old fossils such as ammonites, belemnites and the odd vertebrae.
Jane Austen: At Home in Hampshire
Credit: Luke Shears
One hundred miles away, at a sweet cottage in the tiny village of Chawton in Hampshire, staff at the Jane Austen House Museum are proud to share stories with visitors and devoted fans, known as “Janeites.” Her modest home is the most treasured site associated with the author.
I wandered through preserved rooms to imagine the author’s presence at a small walnut table used for writing manuscripts with a goose quill pen dipped in ink. There’s sheet music upon the pianoforte and place settings on an antique dining table.
Importantly, Jane Austen spent the last eight years of her life until 1817 in this house along with her mother and sister. Here Jane’s literary genius flourished; she wrote, revised and published six of her most famous novels during this period: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.
Jane Austen: Winchester Abbey
With the onset of an unspecified illness at age 40, Austen agreed to move 17 miles to be closer to her doctor in Winchester. Above the door of an unassuming private home on a tiny street, a blue plaque at 8 College Street marks where she stayed and died following two months’ of unsuccessful treatment.
Due to a family connection rather than her writing fame, she was buried at the splendid medieval Winchester Cathedral, final resting place for kings, queens, and saints. A memorial stone and a small brass marker set into the north nave aisle wall indicates where Jane Austen was laid to rest.
Jane Austen’s beloved sister Cassandra wrote, “Her dear remains are to be deposited in the cathedral…a building she admired so much.”
During 2025 festivities marking the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, there will be a special service at the cathedral, theater performances, countless readings, special interest tours, and the unveiling of a statue in Winchester City Center.
THE PIG: Where to Stay in the Countryside
Perfectly selected to enhance Austen’s romantic themes, my overnight stays were in three eclectic, oh-so charming, and utterly English country house hotels with walled kitchen gardens; each one is part of THE PIG collection of owned and operated properties. There’s nothing better — and more authentic — to put you fully in the spirit of all things quintessentially England.
The Pig, near Bath (credit: Jake Eastham)
Banish any thoughts of design minimalism. Surrounded by velvet pillows set on a plush sofa by the fire, get cozy with a herb infused cocktail and drink in quintessential Somerset views at The Pig near Bath. In keeping with THE PIG philosophy, everything served in the restaurant and bar in every one of the collection’s hotels is sourced from the garden or from local purveyors within 25 miles.
The 29-room warm honey-hued stone manor, complete with delightful private spa treatment sheds, is set within a 30-acre deer park eight miles from Bath.
The Pig on the Beach (credit: Jake Eastham)
Right on Studland Beach in Dorset, The Pig on the Beach is a perfect location for enjoying some of England’s award-winning sparkling wines. Served in the conservatory restaurant, there’s fresh, simple British kitchen garden food well done, sourced hyper-locally. Take in the fresh air, wander the grounds and gardens; walk a path down to the beach.
Make yourself at home in Brockenhurst at The Pig New Forest. You’re greeted by vintage croquet sets in the front hall and a roaring fire in the bar’s fireplace. The surrounding forest is full of wildlife including freely roaming ponies; I took a foraging tour with a local expert that went right down to the Hampshire coastline.
Sitting room, The Pig near Bath
THE PIG properties are shabby chic luxury, very laid back and romantic, too. Fair warning…they’re super popular, so if you’re planning to come in 2025 for the 250th Jane Austen Anniversary, book well ahead and remember to bring that Jane Austen novel you’ve been hoping to read again.