Austen Autumn - Jane Austen Returns to Bath After 200 Years!

It’s Austen Autumn in Bath this year as the city gears up for a celebration of its most famous resident – Jane Austen!

The Holburne Museum will be displaying a sketch of the novelist by her sister Cassandra on loan from the National Portrait Gallery from 26 August to 27 September, while No. 1 Royal Crescent launches a brand-new immersive Jane Austen experience from 11 September to coincide with the annual and popular spectacle – The Jane Austen Festival. 

The sketch is said to be the truest to life depiction of her but why not compare it to the wax work portrait at the world-famous Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street and then enjoy afternoon tea ‘with Mr Darcy’ in the Regency Tea Room?

As Austen’s reputation grew after her death in the late 19th century, the sketch was turned into an engraving that, according to Austen’s niece Caroline, depicted a ‘pleasing countenance’ though the general resemblance is not strong. It did however, become the most accepted image of the author and most recently provided the basis for the £10 English note. The work is rarely lent as it is extremely delicate and light-sensitive, so this is a unique chance to see it outside of London. 

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Georgian townhouse in Bath must have a Jane Austen story to tell!  The new Jane Austen tour at No. 1 Royal Crescent looks at life in Britain in the 1790s – 1820, (the Regency into Late Georgian period), including when Austen was writing, and for a time living in Bath. Using the rooms of the house as inspiration, passages and conversations from Austen’s novels bring to life the activities that took place in such domestic spaces, as well as questioning the thoughts and feelings of the people who inhabited them. From social climbing to gender inequality, it explores through Austen’s fiction, the facts of what life was like for many of those who would have been visiting, living or working in Georgian Bath as one century ended and new one began.

If you can’t make it to Bath to enjoy the festival or see the sketch at the Holburne, join a Jane Austen online events such as the ‘Big Read’ of Persuasion by Jane Austen hosted by BRSLI on 16 September or a free Zoom talk from the Holburne - Each Portrait is a Kind of Truth: Picturing Jane Austen on 11 September.

Stay in a house fit for Jane Austen and Mr Darcy - whether you check into the luxurious five-star Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa to stay behind one of Bath’s most iconic facades, book into the Francis Hotel Bath to experience Regency-style lodgings similar to those that Jane Austen lived in, or indulge in the Jane Austen Suite at Bailbrook House, Bath has the perfect accommodation for a Jane Austen themed city break.
EDITOR’S NOTES 
No. 1 Royal Crescent - You can book your tickets for Jane Austen themed sessions which run from 11 September at www.no1royalcresecent.org.uk. Tickets £13 for adults. Concessions available. 
Amy Frost – Bath Preservation Trust’s Historian is available for interviews. 
The Holburne – The portrait will be on display at the museum from 26 August – 27 September. Tickets £12.50 for adults. Concessions available. 
Jane Austen Centre – open daily through the Autumn. Tickets £12.50 for adults. Concessions available. 
The Jane Austen Festival – 10 – 19 September. Tickets for the programme of events, including The Grand Regency Costumed Promenade on Saturday 11 September can be booked online at via The Bath Box Office What's On - Bath Box Office

For further information on Jane Austen in Bath go to Austen Autumn | Visit Bath