As one may see from the drawing given here, it is an exceedingly quaint old building, the portion shown being used as a meeting-house, the other half being a cottage occupied by the family who act as caretakers.  The cream-washed walls are broken up by the richly mellowed half-timber work, and above is the roof of grey green Horsham slabs splashed over with bright orange lichen.

Inside there are the very old oaken settles as well as less ancient ones.  The timber framing shows on the walls and roof, here, as on the exterior, and the general quaintness of the place is enhanced by the old stone-flagged floor.  Of William Penn’s house at Warminghurst no traces whatever remain, but this only helps to increase the interest in the little chapel which has remained entirely unaltered for over two centuries.  Penn, who bought the house in 1682, probably chose its site on account of its remoteness, for those were the days when their meetings were at any moment liable to interruption—­when the members of the congregation met together knowing well that discovery meant imprisonment.  In the quaint little meeting-house it is easy to feel the spirit of the Quakers, and one may almost imagine that one hears outside the rumble of the wheels of the heavy ox-waggon in which Penn drove over from Warminghurst Place.

[Illustration:  THE OLD CHAPEL AT THAKEHAM NEAR BILLINGSHURST.

Where William Penn used to worship.]

CHAWTON THE HOME OF JANE AUSTEN

=How to get there.=—­Train from Waterloo.  L. and S.W.  Railway. =Nearest Station.=—­Alton (1 mile from Chawton). =Distance from London.=—­46-1/2 miles. =Average Time.=—­Varies between 1-3/4 to 2 hours.

                     1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=—­Single 7s. 9d. 5s. 0d. 3s. 10-1/2d. 
          Return 13s. 6d. 8s. 8d. 7s. 9d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=—­At Alton—­“Swan Hotel,” “Crown
  Hotel,” etc.

Situated about a mile from Alton Station, on the main line of the South-Western Railway, is the little village of Chawton, the residence of Jane Austen at the time when she was producing her best literary work.  A walk along the main Winchester road brings one to the charming old-world place, and, keeping on past the thatched cottages of the village, one reaches a small brick house on the right-hand side, near a pond, just before the road divides for Winchester and Gosport.  This building, which is now tenanted by a workman’s club, was Chawton Cottage, where Jane Austen spent some of the brightest days of her life, and wrote her most successful novels, books which are more highly appreciated at the present day than they were during the lifetime of the authoress.

Her father was rector of Steventon, another Hampshire village, at which place his daughter was born in 1775, and where her early days were spent.  Jane Austen’s novels are remarkable for the truthfulness and charm with which they reproduce the everyday life of the upper middle classes in England in her time, and for delicate and yet distinct insight into every variety of the human character.  Miss Austen’s first four novels, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma, were published anonymously.