'I visited the pitiful never-before-seen room where Jane Austen took her last breath'

The modest lodging room where one of the world’s greatest novelists, Jane Austen, breathed her final breath has been opened to the public for the first time in Winchester, Hampshire.

Normally crowds of Jane Austen fans from all over the gather outside the cream-coloured walls of this hallowed Georgian building at No 8 College Street to pay homage to their favourite author, whose six witty novels such as Sense & Sensibility captured a slice of 18th century English life and spawned a global romantic industry in Hollywood films, period dramas and spin-off TV series.

Normally the closest fans have been able to get over the years has been to take photos of the memorial plaque to Jane that hangs above the door at No 8, but have never been allowed to step foot inside.

Now the hand-written note stuck to the wall outside reminding tourists that it is a private residence has been torn down, and the simple lodgings rooms where Jane spent three months before her untimely death, aged 41, has been opened for just 28 days to the public to mark the 250th anniversary of the author’s birth.

On 18 July 1817, Jane had a seizure after a long unknown illness and died with her head in her beloved sister Cassandra’s lap upstairs in the lodging house, just five minutes walk from the Winchester Cathedral where she is buried.

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Born the seventh child of eight in 1775 in Steventon, Hampshire, where her father was rector, Jane famously never wed after her first love Irish lawyer Tom Lefroy (played by James McAvoy in the 2007 film Becoming Jane with Anne Hathaway) departed for Dublin and wed a wealthy woman.

The author, who just before her death had begun to enjoy a minor celebrity despite publishing her books anonymously, only earned around £650 in her lifetime (the equivalent of £40,000 today) from her work, and was used to living relatively modestly compared to her wealthy brothers.

Jane and her sister and mother lived in Chawton Cottage, 10 miles from Winchester, which was one of many properties owned by her rich brother Edward, who had an annual income of £15,000 – even grander than Mr Darcy’s £10,000 a year in Jane’s most famous work, Pride & Prejudice.

Guiding the first tour of its kind in the house, Adam Rattray, head of history of art at Winchester College, which owns the property, explains how historians and architects have been able to peel back the layers of history in the house to recreate what it would have looked like in Jane’s time.

“Jane had been unwell for many months and when she arrived in Winchester on May 24, she was suffering from an unknown disease – possibly Addison’s or Lupus. She had a blotchy face and she had not left her house in a long time and came to the city for medical treatment from Giles King Lyford, surgeon-general at county hospital.

“In her last letters to her nephew, Jane wrote about her ‘comfortable lodgings, including the neat little drawing room with a bow window overlooking Dr Gabell’s garden,’ who was the master of the college. And how she mainly spent her days on a sofa, which we have replicated with a piece of furniture from the period covered with ticking.

“The house virtually remained untouched for years so much of the cornicing is original, and we have matched the same coloured green paint we found on the walls downstairs, and the grey, terracotta and cream of Jane’s lodgings.”

Sadly Jane never recovered and a day before she died, when asked by her sister what she needed, she replied, “Only death itself.”

Her last tragic words were, “God grant me patience, Pray for me, Oh pray for me.”

Jane was buried with just four male members of her family in attendance, as women did not attend funerals at the time. And her heartbroken sister Cassandra could only watch from the window upstairs in the lodging house as the funeral cortege carrying Jane passed on the way to her final resting place.

Cassandra, who was played by Keeley Hawes in the recent BBC period drama Miss Austen, wrote later, “I watched the little mournful procession the length of the street and when it turned from my sight… I had lost her forever,” before leaving the house never to return.

The opening of the house where Jane died is part of a summer-long celebration of the Hampshire city’s most famous resident, including a display in the City Museum of Jane’s belongings such as her beautiful silk pelisse – or coat – which shows Jane stood about 5ft 7-tall and was a size six in modern UK sizing.

Louise West, former curator of Jane’s house, explains how when Jane began earning her own money, she loved to spend it. “We have many everyday objects here that belonged to Jane such as purses which normally would have been thrown out, but by the end of her life, Jane’s sister and mother were being asked for Jane’s autographs, so she was beginning to become famous.

“Even though Jane made many of her clothes, she paid for the silk pelisse to be made for her at great expense, and if you look closely, you’ll see it’s covered in tiny oak leaves – a Naval symbol – in tribute to her two seafaring brothers.

“Jane’s house at Chawton would have been very cold, and she would have worn the pelisse a bit like a housecoat to keep herself warm.”

Visitors to the city can also experience the Jane Austen exhibition at Winchester Cathedral where she was buried, and where letters and poems between Jane and her good friend Anne Lefroy are on display.

Jane met Anne Lefroy’s nephew Tom as a lively 20-year-old when she attended many balls at the Assembly Rooms in Basingstoke.

In early January 1796, Jane wrote excitedly to her older sister Cassandra about her crush, calling him "a very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man”.

But alas, Jane was unlikely to offer bring much in the way of a dowry, and in another of her letters later that year, she mentioned his departure and wrote, “At length the day is come when I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when you receive this it will be over. My tears flow as I write at the melancholy idea.”

Indeed Tom left the country and married a wealthy woman Mary Paul in 1799, and they had seven children and lived in the family estate at Carrigglass Manor in County Longford in Ireland. Tom and Jane never saw each other again, but the Austen and Lefroy families kept in touch over the years, and descendants of Tom have been very involved with the celebrations of the famous author.

Tim Lefroy, 77, who is Tom’s brother’s great grandson, also lives in Winchester, and attended the opening. He spoke about why his young Anglo Irish ancestor would never have married Jane. “Tom was an impecunious lawyer and couldn't afford to marry Jane – he had yet to start his career.”

As the years passed and Jane grew older, she remained unmarried. That’s not to say she wasn’t courted by other suitors – aged 27 she received a proposal from a local farmer Harris Bing-Wither who was due to inherit a large fortune, but after accepting him, the following day she turned him down.

Curator Louise West adds, “He was a very nice family friend, but rather dull. Considering what we know Jane thought of romance, it’s hardly surprising she declined his offer.”

Jane was a prolific letter writer and wrote thousands of them in her lifetime, but her sister burned all but 160 of them. Probably because Jane’s sharp tongue would have embarrassed many with her witty yet indiscreet revelations about neighbours and family.

However perhaps we should all be thankful Jane never married and had children – not least because three of her Jane’s six sisters in law died in childbirth – but also, if she had, it’s unlikely Jane would have had the time or support to write what are thought to be six of the greatest novels in the English language.

And now her tomb inside the spectacular Norman Winchester Cathedral, which is engraved with an epitaph written by her brother Henry, is a shrine to fans who come from all over the world to lay flowers and pay their respects to one of the literary world’s most famous women.

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