Ever since it was saved from wrack and ruin by a heroic philanthropist in the 1940s， the pretty red-brick cottage in Chawton where Jane Austen spent the last eight years of her life has been a place of pilgrimage for her devoted readers. For within its modest walls she wrote or revised all six of her published novels， working on the tiny， 12-sided walnut table in the dining room， reading the finished products aloud to family and neighbours in the drawing room， and revelling in being a ‘Hampshire-born Austen’ come home to the countryside after years hopping between city lodgings.

20世纪40年代，一位英勇的慈善家将乔顿一座红砖小屋从残垣断壁中挽救了下来。从此，简·奥斯汀度过生命中最后八年的这座小屋便成为了她那些忠实读者的一方圣地。在这座朴素的房子里，她创作或修订了那六部终获出版的小说。她在餐厅里那张小小的十二边形胡桃木桌上伏案写作，在客厅里向家人和邻居朗读写就的作品，并为重返乡村而欣喜若狂——此前，这位“汉普郡出生的奥斯汀”曾在市区变换住所，辗转多年。

The spirit of the author resounds as you tread its creaking floorboards， taking in the string of her treasured possessions and surviving letters now in the hands of the house museum， making it the ideal starting point for anyone embarking on an Austen tour to celebrate the 250th anniversary of her birth.

当你踏上吱吱作响的地板，感受她珍爱的物品和现存信件——如今由这座故居博物馆保管，作者的精神仿佛在此回荡。若要踏上奥斯汀之旅，庆祝她诞辰250周年，这里是理想的起点。

In fact， there is really no better place to find Jane than her beloved home county. Many who wend their way to the leafy lanes of Chawton take the opportunity to tread the path to the Elizabethan ‘great house’ at the other end of the village， where she went to ‘dawdle away an hour or two’ with her brother Edward， who， thanks to his adoption by wealthy， childless relatives， owned the entire Chawton estate. Plenty， too， make the hop of just 16 miles to Steventon， her birthplace. The rectory that was her first home is long gone， demolished in the 1820s by a nephew who inherited the parish and fancied something smarter; a lone lime tree marks the site. But the village’s medieval church， where her father， the Reverend George Austen， preached， looks much as it did when the author regularly passed through the oak door for his Sunday services.

事实上，要寻访奥斯汀，她深爱的故乡汉普郡最为合适。许多游客前往乔顿绿树成荫的村巷，都会顺道前往村庄另一端的伊丽莎白时代“大宅”，简曾在那里与哥哥爱德华“消磨一两个小时”。爱德华由于被富而无子的亲戚收养，拥有整个乔顿庄园。许多游客也会前往仅16英里外的奥斯汀的出生地史蒂文顿，但那所牧师住宅已不复存在，19世纪20年代，继承该教区的一位侄子为建新宅将其拆除。如今，那片遗址上孤零零地立着一棵椴树。但村庄的那座中世纪教堂依然如故，她的父亲乔治·奥斯汀牧师曾经在那里布道，作者曾经穿过橡木门到那里参加周日礼拜。

But while Hampshire may be ‘Austen country’， it is far from the only place in England to claim an acquaintance with the author， and if you are prepared to call for the carriage to take you further afield， there are a host of other places to follow in her footsteps.

尽管汉普郡可能是“奥斯汀之乡”，但它绝非这位作者在英格兰唯一熟络之地。