Friday Frights/Delights: Jane Austen's Spirit

Welcome to Friday Frights, well today is less of a fright and more of a delight. Being a fan of Jane Austen's works, I'm happy to share ghostly accounts at her home.

The house Jane Austen lived in, Chawton House in Chawton, U.K., is now a museum. Jane Austen lived here from 1809 to 1817, writing or revising all six of her major novels in this house.

But many staff members have reported supernatural happenings. Here are the reports:

While some visitors and staff report a "warm, happy" atmosphere and occasional stories of "girlish laughter" or "ghostly" sensations on the stairs, it is generally considered a peaceful, rather than haunting, presence.

There is also a legend of the Grey Lady ghost who has been seen by several people. Here is a clip from the Jane Austen Literary Foundation website:

Charlotte Middleton, whose family rented Chawton House for the first few years of Jane Austen’s time in Chawton and occasionally dined with Jane, noted 'a haunted gallery which no servant would pass alone', which is believed to be the first record of a ghost in the Tapestry Gallery.

During World War II, Barnardo’s Home for Orphaned Girls sent children to Hampshire. From 1943-1947, a group of evacuees, who were fleeing the bombing in the cities, stayed in the countryside at Chawton House.

It was one of these guests who reported a sighting of the apparition. In a letter she shared, “I remember a Grey Lady ghost who would walk the staircase and who we scared each other to death thinking…about.” Later accounts state that the phantom has also been spotted drifting through the Tapestry Gallery.

https://janeaustenlf.org/pride-and-possibilities-further-articles/2025/9/6/issue-127-apeacefulpresence

Happy Friday and Happy Hauntings

S.K. Andrews