] Was Jane as devasted about moving as some have made out? Did she faint clean away at the news, or was she actually quite excited by the idea?

I imagine it must have been an unwelcome change to move from the countryside she loved into a city. I read that in her letters Jane described Bath as - and unfortunately this is just a paraphrase since I haven't got the book with me here at work - a noisy white glare. Also, the fact that she wasn't inspired to write during the 'city' years suggests that her artistic spirit didn't thrive in an urban environment.

Sometimes unwelcome changes can be for the best, though, and I think Jane's time in Bath was one such case. Surely the Bath scenes in her novels would not have been as convincing if she hadn't had the opportunity to live there?