This museum was on our own time. I thought it was a lovely little tourist stop. The girls working the ticketing counter were dressed in regency clothing, as were the interpreters. Every 20 minutes a tour would start. Groups would wait in one room upstairs and watch a short movie about the Jane Austen Festival and fun facts about movies based on the novels. Then an interpreter would gather the group to another room to give an 18 minute lecture about Jane's family, career, and life in Bath.
We then got sent down to the basement to peruse possible portraits of Jane a (quite text-heavy) exhibition about lifestyle during Jane's time in Bath. We got another chance to dress up, this time with Mr. Darcy.
The last room was for having a go at calligraphy with a quill pen and ink, and to see a rendering of Miss Austen herself in wax form.
Overall it was a cute institution and I walked away knowing more about the author and the time she lived in. If that was the Big Idea for the museum, then they succeeded. I think they could have made things less text-heavy, but being the only real place to learn about the author I think its justified. They market a lot to fans of Mr. Darcy, so it was easy to identify their key audience.
Museum Professional. Traveler. Cat lover.
