When Jane was 33 years old, she and her family moved into Chawton Cottage, which was provided by her brother, Edward. Her mother was a widow now, and the family was glad to return to the Hampshire countryside after living in Southampton and Bath for years.
Their cottage was similar to their old country parsonage with its low ceilings and small rooms. The dining room window looked out on the busy coach road, which forked at this spot to send half the coaches to Fareham and the other to Winchester.
The traffic added to the daily excitement, especially the Collyer’s Flying Machine—a stagecoach that passed daily on its route from Southampton to London. It had six horses and passengers inside and on the roof, along with an armed guard to protect from highwaymen. A man rode one of the front horses to keep the team in order, and the coachman was Mr. Falkner, who lived nearby. (Jane later dubbed it Falkner’s Car or ‘the Car of Falkenstein’ in a joke with her niece, Anna.)
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