Rank order

Jane Austen’s House in Chawton, England—her home for the last eight years of her life, and the place where she wrote or revised all six of her completed novels—is a delightful spot. Walking through the rooms of Chawton cottage conjures a magical sense of closeness to the author and her life.

Apparently, I’m not the only visitor who thinks so: “A new study has crowned Jane Austen’s former East Hampshire home as one of the UK's most beloved historical residences, ranking it fourth in a list of the top-rated properties,” reports the local newspaper, the Alton Herald.

According to the newspaper, the British travel insurance company AllClear analyzed online reviews of tourist sites--not the most scientific of measures, but never mind--and found that 93 percent of the ratings for Jane Austen’s House were either four or five stars. (Not sure what was wrong with the other 7 percent of online reviewers, but there’s no pleasing some people.)

The only places with higher ratings than Jane Austen’s House, the newspaper reports, were (in descending order) the childhood homes of Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney, in Liverpool; the museum/home of the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, in Cornwall; and Chartwell, the home of Winston Churchill, in Kent. Pretty good company, in other words. And Austen’s home beat out sites associated with Lord Byron and William Morris. Take that, boys!

I love a good list—which is to say, a silly yet entertaining piece of commercial puffery designed, in this case, to sell travel insurance—so why am I quoting a newspaper summary when the primary source is available? Well, here’s the thing: For the life of me, I can’t find this “new study” anywhere on the internet.

I’m not saying it doesn’t exist—its similarly complimentary findings for American historical homes are referenced in a recent piece by a Massachusetts radio station—and yet Google cannot seem to locate it, and AllClear doesn’t mention it on its blog, its social media, or its press-release page. Show Me The List! Show Me The List!

It’s hard to believe you need a security clearance to view this data, but maybe ranking tourist sites is a trickier business than I’d realized. (Could Barbara Hepworth fans, outraged that their idol was outflanked by the Beatles, have demanded a retraction?) Personally, I think we Janeites should be thanking our lucky stars that Chawton cottage didn’t come in first. It’s going to be hard enough getting in there next year, what with all those Austen 250 tourists.