where the writers are
Jane Austen's House Becomes An Archaeologists' Dig

Austen reportedly started three of her novels in this house, and lived there for twenty-six years.  One assumes her surroundings had some formative influence on her work. At any rate, it should be fun to root around and find a teacup or two. Or perhaps a pen nib.

 

Jane Austen as she's been known for the last 150 years

 

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Remains of Jane Austen's Steventon home unearthed

Archaeologists in Hampshire have uncovered signs of the house where Jane Austen spent more than half of her life.

 

 

The Austen family lived in the rectory in Steventon, near Basingstoke, from 1775 to 1801, where the writer began three of her novels.

The house was demolished early in the 19th Century soon after Austen and her family moved to Bath.

Volunteers involved in the dig hope to gain an insight into life in the house.

Debbie Charlton, of archaeologists Archaeo Briton, who led the dig, said: "Our main focus for the project is putting together the puzzle of what Jane's first home was like."

Although the original shape of the building was recorded on a local map in the early 1800s, it was not to scale and the few drawings made by different artists appear contradictory.

 

Austen's social life while she lived at Steventon is said to have provided her with material for her novels.

While at Steventon, she started to pen the drafts that became Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey.

 

 

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16002088