There is strong evidence that Jane Austen visited Wales. Deirdre Le Faye has very helpfully given
Kath and myself two pieces of information which confirm this. Firstly, Mary Lloyd noted in her diary
on 14 August 1802 that Mr and Mrs Austen, with son Charles and, one assumes, both Jane and Cassandra,
had arrived at Steventon from Wales on that day. Secondly, in a letter to James Edward Austen-Leigh (8 August 1862)
Anna Lefroy writes:
'She was once, I think, at Tenby - and once they went as far north as Barmouth. I would give a good deal,
that is, as much as I could afford, for a sketch which Aunt Cassandra made of her in one of their expeditions -
sitting down out of doors, on a hot day, with her bonnet strings untied.'
Kath is following up the Tenby connection, and I am researching Barmouth.
I could not imagine what could attract visitors such as the Austens to Barmouth. I know it today as a rather
seedy seaside resort (although there are interesting old houses built in terraces above each other, hanging on
to a crag at the back of the new town). I imagined it as a small village in 1802. I was wrong. I delved into
my father-in-law's collection of books on North Wales and found the Rev. William Bingley, no less, a fellow of the
Linnaean Society, of Peter House, Cambridge. His book on the subject, (second ed. 1814) details two 'excursions'
(each one lasting several months) made in 1798 and 1801 - it even contains a large fold-out map of the area.
He devotes several pages to Barmouth, writing of a 'summer season - genteel families from Wales and the West of England',
calling it a 'town...a sea bathing place' and originally a 'resort of invalids'. He is astonished to find 'upwards of
thirty persons, most of them of fortune and fashion' in the dining room of the inn, which he tells us is 'excellent'. The innkeeper
also has a 'large and good building', a lodging house, which is 'quite full'. Other lodging houses he castigates as 'dirty and
miserable places'. On the sands are three bathing machines, 'appropriated to the use of ladies', and gentlemen bathe 'on the open coast'.
The principal amusements are 'going out in parties on the water' and 'promenading on the beach or sands'. The beach, he says, provides
one of 'the most delightful walks I ever beheld'. He then waxes lyrical about the 'grandeur' of the scenery which had drawn him to the area:
'the wide river Mawddach amongst the mountains forming many and elegant promontories'; the 'great heights' on each side, some 'clad in wood',
others 'exhibiting their naked rocks, scantily covered with the purple heath'; and 'lofty Cadair Idris'. So much for Barmouth. It obviously
offered quite a lot and was well known to 'the traveller of taste (in search of grand and stupendous scenery), the naturalist
and the antiquary' from the West of England who 'have all, in this romantic country, full scope for their respective pursuits',
as the Rev. W. Bingley puts it in his Preface.
Another volume, Panorama of the Beauties, Curiosities, and Antiquities of North Wales by J Hemingway (1839), refers to
the first book on North Wales by Mr Pennant (1778) 'failing to excite the curiosity of the English public', but quoting Mr Bingley
as being 'extensively read'. Did the Austen family read it? What fun if this is where Jane Austen first saw the name.
Whatever, quite clearly we now have a reason why North Wales may have beckoned the family: the picturesque romantic grandeur of the
scenery, so much nearer to Bath than the Lake District, or even the Peak District. Tenby to Barmouth is approximately 110 miles,
but a direct route from Bath to Gloucester, Hereford, Shrewsbury, Welshpool, Dolgellau, Barmouth is approximately 190 miles -
and misses out the Severn Estuary crossing and includes taking in Ross-on-Wye.
Clearly, the most important and difficult matter to pursue now is evidence of the Austen family's actual presence in Barmouth.
Church records might help, as it appears to have been the custom in the area to ask visiting clergy to preach. There should be a
written record of this. I hope a visit to the archive office in Dolgellau, where I have established a contact, will yield something of interest.
If any other member has further information, or would be interested in following up the research, I should be delighted to hear from you.
Jill Derricott
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