Jane Austen spent only five years of her life in Bath, and few of her letters from that time have survived, yet the city has become a major literary destination because of her. Every year thousands of readers retrace her footsteps and seek out locations featured in her two Bath novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, with every word pored over and every happy ending savoured.
It was her time in Bath, witnessing all the foibles of Regency society, that shaped her writing for life, giving full rein to her keen wit and powers of observation, and she used Bath locations to reveal truths about her characters – something her early readers would have understood.
Using Jane’s own words, our walking tour, led by a qualified Blue Badge guide, will explore these locations, discovering where Catherine Morland first met Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey, and where the pompous Sir Walter Elliot in Persuasion, unimpressed by the number of plain women in Bath, “counted 87 women go by, one after another, without there being a tolerable face among them.”
We will also follow the fortunes of the Austen family, from their initial relative prosperity in Sydney Place to their final less salubrious lodgings in Trim Street, to discover how Jane’s life experiences shaped her much-loved novels.
Organised by Fred Mawer Tours (https://www.fredmawertours.co.uk/).
PRACTICAL INFORMATION:
Start: Centre of Queen Square by obelisk (BA1 2HA)
Finish: Trim Street (BA1 1HD)
Duration: 2 hours
Distance: 1.5 miles
Suitable for wheelchair users: Yes
Gentle-paced walking, on pavements, with frequent stops.
Meet centre of Queen Square by obelisk
