This document includes a list of places in the novel
Pride and Prejudice, including both imaginary places and real
places, and a list of important places in Jane Austen's
life, as well as a
map
of England which shows pre-1971 county boundaries and
illustrates both the lists.
See also the Diagram of the legal structure of the United Kingdom (for the 19th century, substitute "Ireland" for "Northern Ireland").
On the
map
a black dot 
is placed on the
three counties in which most of the action of the novel occurs, and several
other places in the novel were marked where there was room on the map
- Hertfordshire
- Imaginary places:
- Longbourn
(residence of the Bennets),
Netherfield Park
(residence of the Bingleys),
Lucas Lodge, the
residence of the Lucases, and the
village of Meryton, where
the militia regiment is quartered for a time. Less important places in the
vicinity are Oakham Mount (to
which Darcy and
Elizabeth walk on
the morning after their
éclaircissement), the memorably-named town of
---- (where the London
coaches stop, and the George Inn is located), and the houses or estates of
Ashworth, Haye-Park, Purvis Lodge, and Stoke (all of which
Mrs. Bennet considers as possible
residences for
Lydia and
Wickham).
- Derbyshire:
- Imaginary places:
- Pemberley
(residence of Mr. Darcy) and
the villages of Lambton
(former residence of
Mrs. Gardiner) and
Kympton (where
Wickham was to be the clergyman).
- Real places:
- Scenic and touristic locations in Derbyshire
mentioned in connection with
Elizabeth and
the Gardiners' tour are
Bakewell,
Chatsworth,
Matlock,
Dove Dale, and
the Peak.
- Kent:
- Real places:
- The black dot on Kent is placed in the
approximate location of
Westerham, in northwest
Kent near London.
Ramsgate is a sea-side
resort, where Georgiana Darcy
stayed for a summer.
- Imaginary places:
- Rosings (the
residence of Lady Catherine)
and Hunsford (where
Mr. Collins is rector) are near
Westerham.
- Sussex:
- Real places:
- On the southeast coast the town of
Brighton is the
fashionable sea-side resort, with a temporary military camp, where
Lydia goes. In real life it was the
hangout of the Prince Regent and his
decadent coterie; in a letter of January 8th 1799 to
Cassandra, Jane
Austen wrote "I assure you that I dread the idea of going to Brighton as
much as you do, but I am not without hopes that something may happen to
prevent it". Eastbourne is another seaside town on
the Sussex coast, to the east of Brighton.
"Here I am once more in this scene of
dissipation and vice, and I begin already to find my morals corrupted."
-- Jane Austen, letter of August 1796
London is not marked on
the map, since there was no room to do so (it is southeastern Middlesex). The
London area had over a million inhabitants (the first city in Europe to do
so), and was several times larger than any other city in Britain; London was
often associated, in the imagination of Jane
Austen's day, with loose morals in both low life and high society -- a
scene of fashionable dissipations and a dangerous example to the rest of the
country (thus the opportunistic and amoral
Lady Susan says
"London will always be the fairest field of
action, however my views may be directed").
Bromley is
between Westerham and London,
Epsom is on the
southern-eastern approaches to London, and
Clapham is a neighbourhood
on the south side of the Thames (across from the `City' proper).
Cheapside, where the
Bingley sisters accuse Mr. Gardiner of living (he actually lives in
Gracechurch Street, further east) is an
unfashionably commercial neighbourhood in the
`City', near St. Paul's. Grosvenor street, where Mr. Hurst and Louisa
live, is in a much more fashionable neighborhood towards the West End.
Barnet and
Hatfield are coaching
stations to the north of London, through which
Lydia and
Wickham would probably have passed
if they had been going to Scotland.
- The Lake country (rugged,
scenic, and with literary associations) is in the far northwest of England;
and Newcastle (where
Wickham is stationed after his
marriage to Lydia) is in
Northumberland in the northeast.
Gretna Green, just
over the Scottish border, was the Nevada of its day (taking advantage of the
laxer Scottish marriage laws during the 1754-1856 period) -- quickie
marriages, minors don't need parental permission, few questions asked.
According to Caroline Norton, "Gretna" was "not... of itself a city sacred to Hymen, but the nearest village
across the boundary of England, that could be reached by enamoured couples".
Go to map
Go to Pride and Prejudice Hypertext
- In Hampshire:
Steventon
(near Basingstoke) in which Jane Austen lived
1775-1801, and
Chawton (near
Alton) in which she lived 1809-1817, are represented by a single black dot in
northwestern Hampshire ("HANTS" on the map). For other places in northwestern
Hampshire connected with Jane Austen's relatives, see the
Austen family genealogical charts.
Winchester,
where she died, is in central Hampshire.
Southampton
(where she briefly went to be taught in 1783, and lived 1808-1809), and
Portsmouth
(which plays a rôle in Mansfield Park
and was important for her naval brothers),
are both on the Hampshire coast. In light of the controversy over the public
kiss in the recent movie version of
Persuasion, here's
a
.gif image showing a couple in late 18th-century or early
19th-century Portsmouth osculating right out in the open on the street (gasp!) (be aware that this material isn't appropriate for those who would be shocked by shameless smooching, so that discretion is advised). 
- In Berkshire (to the north of Hampshire):
Reading is where Jane
Austen and her sister Cassandra went
to boarding school in 1785-1786.
- In Gloucester/Somerset:
Bath (marked on the
map) was a health resort, retirement town, and provincial outpost of
fashionable life; Jane Austen's parents were married there, she lived
there 1801-1806, and her father is buried there. Bath had been fashionable with
high society (Beau Nash and his dandies) earlier in the 18th century,
but had become less so by Jane Austen's day.
Bath is important in her novels
Northanger Abbey and
Persuasion (and has a minor
`off-stage' rôle in Mansfield
Park), though it was not Jane Austen's favorite place to live in
("Bath is still Bath", as she wrote in a
letter of November 6, 1813). Clifton, in which Jane
Austen lived briefly in 1806, and which is the target of one of Catherine
Morland's excursions in Northanger
Abbey, is near Bristol, towards the coast northwest of
Bath.
- The seaside town of
Lyme was visited by
Jane Austen in 1803-1804, and plays a significant
rôle in the novel
Persuasion. Her possible
tragically-ended early 1800's affair of the
heart occurred along the Devonshire coast, west of
Lyme.
- In Kent the estate of
Godmersham was inherited by her brother
Edward. The Austen family originally came
from Kent.
Unfortunately,
Kamchatka (referred
to in her "Plan of a Novel") is slightly off
the main map. In spite
of lack of popular demand, I've therefore also included a
map indicating the
relative positions of Kamchatka and England.
Go to map
Go to Jane Austen Info Page
Go to Jane Austen's life
Important Places in Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen's Life -- Map
Go to "Hampshire is Jane Austen Country" (official county site)
