Nearly five years ago, a Canadian lawyer named Tara Rout floated the notion of buying Luckington Court, the UK mansion that played Longbourn in the BBC’s iconic 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and turning it into a kind of Jane Austen theme park, à la Austenland.
Back then, Luckington Court was on the market for £5.75 million (at the time, about $7.7 million, but now about $6.9 million), and since Rout’s Kickstarter appeal raised only $20,000, this odd but rather charming little project came to naught. As, apparently, did all efforts to sell Luckington Court, which had originally been offered at £9 million before the steep markdown.
But if Rout, or any other deep-pocketed Janeite, is still interested, now may be the moment to act: Luckington Court is back on the market, this time for £5 million, which at current exchange rates is a practically bargain-basement $6 million.
For those of us with real estate fixations, the house remains a mouth-watering treat: eight bedrooms, seven bathrooms, nineteen acres of property, elegant living areas, a seventeenth-century pedigree, and a slew of outbuildings, including a dovecote, not to mention that whole Elizabeth Bennet vibe.
Late Christmas gift, anyone?