Rare Jane Austen artefacts on show at Winchester Cathedral

Rarely seen artefacts from the life of Jane Austen - including handwritten poems and first editions of her books - are set to go on display this week.

Winchester Cathedral, where the writer is buried, is holding the exhibition until September.

It is the first of a series of events as the bicentenary of her death in 2017 approaches.

Austen, who wrote such classics and Sense And Sensibility and Pride And Prejudice, spent most of her life in Hampshire and she wrote her novels in the county.

Her work has seen huge recent success on screen with adaptations for film and television.

The exhibition is showing a handwritten poem by Austen about her friend Ms Lefroy and first editions of Emma in three volumes from 1816 and a set of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion from 1818.

Also included is the Winchester Cathedral register of her death which incorrectly states she was buried on July 16 1817 when, in fact, she died on July 18 aged 41 from an unknown cause.

The handwritten note by her brother Henry with the wording of the inscription on her floor slab in the cathedral is also in the exhibition.

Just like the floor slab, it makes no mention of Austen's skill as a writer.

Two further handwritten poems about Austen by her brother Rev. James are included.

The poems and handwritten inscription belong to Winchester College and have never been seen outside the public school since they were given to it in the 1930s. Archivist at the College Geoffrey Day, said: "We have had them a very long time and we knew we had them but no-one ever asked to see them. When we heard about the Austen exhibition at the Cathedral and we said we had the manuscripts they were astonished.

"They have never been shown in public before only in the college for some of the boys." Dr Day said the two poems from her brother about her are "very pious".

"They make no reference that she can write, just like the slab in the cathedral, which also does not say anything about her being a famous novelist. It says a lot about the early 19th century attitude to women writers," he explained. Vice-chairman of the Jane Austen Society, Elizabeth Proudman, explained that the novelist's fame was on the wane when she died and only four people went to her funeral despite its grand setting in Winchester Cathedral.

This explains the mistake in the register because she simply was not important enough for people to have remembered.

"She published Sense And Sensibility in 1811 and Pride And prejudice in 1813 and then Mansfield Park and Emma and they all did well," Ms Proudman said.

"She finished Persuasion in 1816 and then died in 1817 before it was published.

"This book and Northanger Abbey were published after her death but they were not well received as the other books.

"It seems at the time she had had her spell of fame and people did not know who she was.

"At her funeral the service was finished before 10am so not to clash with services and the business of the cathedral.

"There were only four people at her funeral, three brothers and a nephew - women did not attend funerals in those days.

"The service was not as grand as people imagine it would have been because she was not as famous then as she would later become."

Mrs Proudman said that it was not until the 1830s that Austen's reputation began to recover and her genius was recognised.