A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Chawton 67
were so contracted that the whole process went on in the little
space that remained of the open square. Like other fairy works,
however, it all proved evanescent. Not only carriage and ponies,
but castle itself, soon vanished away, ‘like the baseless fabric of a
vision.’° On the death of the Marquis in 1809, the castle was
pulled down. Few probably remember its existence; and any one
who might visit the place now would wonder how it ever could
have stood there.
In 1809° Mr. Knight was able to offer his mother the choice of
two houses on his property; one near his usual residence at Godmersham
Park in Kent; the other near Chawton House, his occasional
residence in Hampshire. The latter was chosen; and in that
year the mother and daughters, together with Miss Lloyd,° a near
connection who lived with them, settled themselves at Chawton
Cottage.
Chawton may be called the second, as well as the last home of
Jane Austen; for during the temporary residences of the party at
Bath and Southampton she was only a sojourner in a strange
land,° but here she found a real home amongst her own people. It
so happened that during her residence at Chawton circumstances
brought several of her brothers and their families within easy
distance of the house. Chawton must also be considered the place
most closely connected with her career as a writer; for there it was
that, in the maturity of her mind, she either wrote or rearranged,
and prepared for publication the books by which she has become
known to the world. This was the home where, after a few years,
while still in the prime of life, she began to droop and wither
away, and which she left only in the last stage of her illness,
yielding to the persuasion of friends hoping against hope.
This house stood in the village of Chawton, about a mile from
Alton, on the right hand side, just where the road to Winchester
branches off from that to Gosport. It was so close to the road that
the front door opened upon it; while a very narrow enclosure,
paled in on each side, protected the building from danger of
collision with any runaway vehicle. I believe it had been originally
built for an inn, for which purpose it was certainly well situated.
Afterwards it had been occupied by Mr. Knight’s steward; but by