Keats in Winchester

The English Romantic poet John Keats stayed in Winchester during the late summer and early autumn of 1819. Aged 23 years and within 18 months of his death, Keats' poetic genius was far from recognised. He was tormented by love for Fanny Brawne, lack of money and ill health.

Yet Keats' brief visit to Winchester seems to have been a relatively peaceful, even happy, interlude in his life. He liked the city: 'an exceeding pleasant town, enriched with a beautiful cathedral and surrounded by a fresh-looking country.' Keats took a daily walk through the Cathedral Close and water meadows to St Cross and gave a detailed account of his route in a letter to his brother George.

After his walk on Sunday 19 September Keats wrote the ode 'To Autumn', commenting: 'How beautiful the season is now - how fine the air. A temperate sharpness about it ... I never lik'd stubble-fields so much as now ... somehow a stubble-plain looks warm ... This struck me so much in my Sunday's walk that I composed upon it.'

> Keats' Walk home
> Follow Keats' Walk
> Read 'To Autumn'
> Autumn accommodation offers