Visiting Miss Jane, Wishing My Beth Was Here

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I devoted most of Thursday to Jane Austen. I visited the center at 25 Gay Street where her family lived for a short time after her father died in 1805 and shortly before they left the area for good. The guides are all dressed in Georgian period costumes and bear name tags like "Lizzie Bennett" or "Catherine Moreland," Very knowledgeable, they led us through the Austen family, parents and children, and their links to Bath. As you may know, there is only one portrait of Jane verified to have been drawn from life - an unfinished, unflattering attempt by her sister Cassandra when Jane was about 35. But the center has obtained a wax figure likeness of Jane that does a remarkable job of bringing her to life in about her mid twenties. The rooms are small and decorated with trompe l'oeil scenes that make you feel as though you are stepping into the parlor two hundred years ago. I watched a little film about Jane in Bath (hosted by Adrian Lukas who played the wicked Mr Wickam in the 1995 'Pride and Predjudice'), but I kept missing my Toots and wishing she were with me, she would have loved it. I should probably say that since I've been here I've been listening to Jane Austen. I finished 'Persuasion' Thursday and began 'Northanger Abbey' yesterday.

While listening to 'Persuasion,' I happened to be visiting the Assembly Rooms and was standing in the Octagon Room when it was mentioned in the book - Anne Elliot had just spotted Captain Wentworth across the room. Whew!

Only got lost in town once and failed to get off my bus at the proper stop so I had to ride to the end of the line and catch it on the way back, so not such a bad day, tourist-wise.

much love,

30

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