] ...what Catherine Morland would have thought of such a woman. ;-)

It does seem possible that Jane's experiences at Abbey School could have contributed to her success in creating the comic balance between Catherine Morland's luridly Gothic imaginings and the prosaic realities of life at Northanger Abbey. Abbey School, where Jane and Cassandra spent many ordinary school-days, was housed in a real former abbey complete with turrets and Gothic architecture. During Jane's first year at the school, a 'perfect skeleton' was unearthed near the abbey church's walls. The schoolgirls gossiped and told lurid stories 'in one turret or another.'