Exhibition Review: In Training for a Heroine: Jane Austen’s Travel Writing Desk

Friday 15th November 2024 – Sunday 23rd February 2025

Jane Austen’s writing desk is now on display at God’s House Tower, where it remains until February 23, as part of region-wide events to celebrate her 250th birthday.

IN TRAINING FOR A HEROINE is one of the first Jane Austen 250 events happening to celebrate her birth, starting in November 2024.

The focus of the exhibition is Jane Austen’s writing slope, a travel writing desk that Jane took everywhere with her. On show at the aptly named God’s House Tower in Southampton, it is on loan from the British Library. It is the first time the desk has been back in the city since Jane Austen lived here 200 years ago, just a stone’s throw from where she lived at Castle Square.

The travel writing slope is in a special case in the middle of the room, which feels just like a Castle, and reminders of Jane’s writing of Northanger Abbey is everywhere..

In Training for a Heroine told the story Jane Austen as a young, ambitious writer at the beginning of her career, the travelling writing desk symbolising a world of opportunity and possibility. Extracts from Jane Austen’s letters provide an insight into her life and her time in Southampton where she lived briefly in 1783 and from 1806-1809.

Dan Crow, Director of ‘a space’ arts, which manages God’s House Tower said: “We are thrilled to host the travelling writing desk and look forward to producing an exhibition that will launch a city-wide programme of events and activities to mark Jane’s 250th birthday.

Claire Whitaker, CEO of Southampton Forward, said: “This is a great opportunity for the city. The return of Jane Austen’s desk to Southampton marks the first in a series of events which celebrate ‘Jane Austen 250’, which is part of a regional programme. “These events will celebrate Jane Austen’s deep ties to Southampton, invite different perspectives of her life and literary works and explore her writing through a contemporary lens”.

Jane Austen’s Travel Writing Slope

Mr Austen purchased the slope for Jane’s 19th birthday in 1794. It is a portable, mahogany desk, sometimes called a ‘lap-desk’, was designed to fold into a case for ease of traveling. It has a secret drawer where Jane stored her most treasured possessions, including letters and manuscripts, and her money!

Almost Lost

While traveling to Dartford in 1798, she nearly lost it when the slope was accidentally put onto a carriage which was on its way to Gravesend, and the West Indies! Jane told the dramatic story to Cassandra on  24 October 1798.

I should have begun my letter soon after our arrival but for a little adventure which prevented me.  After we had been here a quarter of an hour it was discovered that my writing and dressing boxes had been by accident put into a chaise which was just packing off as we came in, and were driven away towards Gravesend in their way to the West Indies.  No part of my property could have been such a prize before, for in my writing-box was all my worldly wealth. . . . Mr. Nottley immediately despatched a man and horse after the chaise, and in half an hour’s time I had the pleasure of being as rich as ever; they were got about two or three miles off.

Letters, Sketches and Recorded Clips

God’s House Tower

Jane would have left town through God’s House Gate, at the south-eastern corner of the town’s walls. God’s House Gate is accessed from Winkle Street, inside the old walled town of Southampton. It was built in the thirteenth century and enlarged in the fourteenth, and allowed access in and out of the walled town, and led directly to Porter’s Meadow and the ferry that took her across the River Itchen.

TAGS: Jane Austen, Travel, Writing Slope, British Library, Letters, Regency era, Regency, Southampton, Birthday, 250th, Anniversary, Exhibition, Treasures, In Training for a Heroine.

See Jane’s Travel Writing Slope from all angles at the British Library.

Read the British Library blog post about Jane Austen 250

Read an in-depth review of the exhibition in a post by JASNA