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Jane Austin

Exhibition of costumes from the TV series of the book that shocked polite society It's almost unthinkable that Jane Austen, known for her novels of the gentry, good manners and polite society, could ever sit in her Hampshire home and include swearing in her books.

However, she found herself being thoroughly disapproved of by American literary authorities which decided to censor her work, Sense and Sensibility, all because one character says: "Good God, Willoughby.'' Hardly a serious profanity but back in the 1800s the phrase was considered so bad that it was deemed likely to offend readers in America and so the passage was removed from the book.

Costumes Now, more than 190 years later, that very same novel, showing the censored passage, will be part of an important exhibition that will be staged at Jane Austen's house at Chawton, near Alton.

The American edition, together with a rare 1811 first edition of the book, is part of a ten-week long display featuring the costumes used in the recent BBC adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.

It is thought that Jane Austen's house and museum will be the first public showcase in Great Britain to display these authentic recreations of early 19th century fashions.

In a few weeks time, on Saturday, March 1, the house will reopen on a daily basis for its 2008 season and the costumes, which visitors will be able to see at close hand, will be one of the main attractions at the museum.

The exhibition is the first in a series of events which will include musical recitals, garden walks, herb workshops and academic lectures while next year will see the redevelopment of the site and a commemorative programme to mark the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's arrival in Chawton, where all of her novels were published.

Chawton was Jane Austen's home for the last eight years of her life and as Sense and Sensibilty was written at the house it is an appropriate venue to display the clothes, which were created by theatrical costumiers, Cosprop, which was founded by Oscar-winning designer, John Bright and has become one of the leading companies of its type over the last 40 years.

Jane's Chawton home

Jane's home For some years, in the early 1800s, the author lived in Southampton in a house which formerly stood on the site of Castle Square and where she was a regular worshipper at the old church of All Saints in the High Street. Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775 at the Parsonage House, Steventon, not far from Basingstoke, four years after her parents had moved from the nearby village of Deane.

In an old book, published in 1891, entitled The Hampshire Antiquary and Naturalist there is a detailed account of how the author's family came to Parsonage House, where they lived for about 30 years.

According to the book: "When the Austen family removed from Deane to Steventon in 1771, the road was a mere cart track, so cut up by deep ruts as to be impassable for a light carriage.

"Mr Austen, who was not then in strong health, performed the short journey on a feather bed, placed upon some soft articles of furniture, in the wagon that held their household goods.

"In those days it was not unusual to set men to work with shovel and pickaxe to fill up ruts and holes in roads, seldom used by carriages, on such special occasions as a funeral or a wedding.''

11:34am Tuesday 19th February 2008

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