Longleat Archives Reveal Tantalising New Link With Jane Austen

New documents discovered at Longleat suggest legendary author Jane Austen may have drawn direct inspiration from the Wiltshire estate.

Many of the estate’s 18th-century customs and practices appear in her novels and archive materials, which reveal a family link to Longleat.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the author’s birth, and the Longleat archives show the fashionable Regency pursuit of visiting a grand country house and grounds described in Pride and Prejudice was flourishing at Longleat, where the 2nd Marquess was one of the first to open his front door to well-to-do local people.

Visitors were invited to sign a daybook, and an early entry has recently been identified as that of Jane Austen’s nephew, the Rev. J. E. Austen, who later wrote the first major biography of her life, A Memoir of Jane Austen,1870.

Archivist Emma Challinor said: “The famous scene from the BBC adaptation of the book showing Mr Darcy, played by Colin Firth, coming out of the lake as Elizabeth Bennett (Jennifer Ehle) emerged from Pemberley after she visited with her aunt and uncle is not quite as the author penned it.

“Austen does however describe how the party is shown around the house by the housekeeper, ‘a respectable looking, elderly woman’, who relates ‘the subjects of the pictures, the dimensions of the rooms, and the price of the furniture’, before handing them over to the gardener at the hall door for a tour of the grounds.

“The 2nd Marquess of Bath, who inherited Longleat in 1796, was one of the first owners of a grand house to open his park gates, and hall door, to such interested parties.  A visitor would expect an experience similar to Austen’s heroine – a tour of selected rooms led by a senior servant.

“One or two big houses even printed their own guidebooks - others, like Longleat, were described in popular travellers’ guides, such as Excursions from Bath by the Rev. Richard Warner, 1801. We know a copy of this guide was owned by the Austen family while living at 4 Sydney Terrace, Bath.

“The grounds at Longleat, like those at the fictional Pemberley, were also a big draw to visitors. 

“The landscape gardener Humphry Repton, when producing one of his famous Red Books for the 2nd Marquess suggesting improvements to Longleat park in 1804, included a delightful watercolour showing a small group of day trippers picnicking on Prospect Hill (near Heaven’s Gate), in a scene reminiscent of the famous picnic on Box Hill depicted by Austen in Emma.

“It Is possible that Jane Austen could have visited Longleat park, or even the House, especially during the period when she was living in Bath and there are certainly scenes in the novels which reflect practices here, but hard evidence is elusive.

“We know two Bath inns – the York House Hotel, and the White Hart - laid on carriages to Longleat, as we still have Lord Bath’s directions to these hostelries after the death of his wife that 'the House & gardens shall not be shewn’ that year,” she added.

Austen was quite familiar with the White Hart and used it as a location in Persuasion.

The 2nd Marquess’ family also took breaks in Bath, although the large house they owned there was by this period leased to the Postmaster of Bath.

Austen’s works were clearly popular at Longleat. A newly discovered invoice shows the 2nd Marquess purchased Mansfield Park as soon as it came out, in May 1814, from Hatchard’s bookshop in London (reputedly a haunt of Austen herself) for 18 shillings – it cost six shillings per volume. 

As well as Mansfield Park, the Longleat libraries include first editions of Emma and Sense and Sensibility, and a second edition of Pride and Prejudice.

Intimate guided tours of Longleat’s incredible libraries are available on the Library Tour experience. via www.longleat.co.uk.

Self-guided tours of the ground floor of Longleat House are included in the Longleat Day Ticket from 1st February. Guided tours of the ground and first floors, including the State Rooms, are also available.