Jane Austen: Down to the Sea

Jane Austen: Down to the Sea

Celebrating the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth in 1775 this exhibition will explore the sea as a setting for her fictional worlds and its influence on her. She loved a dip in the sea, often went there on holiday and had two brothers in the navy. Focussing on the Dorset coastal towns Jane visited or wrote about it will explore leisure, fashion, entertainment and wellbeing at the seaside. The sea as a location for romance and danger will also be revealed through imagined and real-life experiences of the people who went there. In the exhibition space, costumes will show what cutting-edge fashion both men and women were expected to show off at the seaside, as well as a pink feather cockade worn by the author. A first edition of the novel Persuasion from the author’s house in Chawton will be on display as well as local Regency guidebooks, postcards, evening dresses, paintings and games highlighting how people spent their time on holiday by the sea.