] Okay, so Catherine is a little disappointed in her first impressions of the Abbey. Has she any right to be? What do you think an Abbey was supposed to look like/contain in those days?

Of course Abbeys should have the ghosts of mistreated nuns, cloisters, damp, dark corridors and other gothic accoutrements. JA was a great supporter of the historical as manifest in her later remarks about "improvements" in Mansfield Park where Southerton is supposedly based on Stoneleigh Abbey, owned by JA's uncle Thomas Leigh.

Stoneleigh was originally an abbey bought by.....the Brandons! Anything less abbey-like you could not wish to see. And thanks to a recent Lord Leigh's habit of smoking in bed it has had some very recent "improvements" (JA would turn in her grave)Clean and lovely though it is, you would have to work very hard to imagine the unfortunate Mrs. Tilney shut away to suffer.........

Don't miss Stoneleigh if you ever do a JA tour of the UK. It's fab!