North Wessex Downs of the AONB can be found Watership Down where the book "Watership Down" by Richard Adams is set, to the north of the small market town of Whitchurch, Hampshire. Significant parts of "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy are set on and in the villages connected to the Berkshire Downs. The Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was designated in 1972. It is currently managed by a Council of Partners whose members are: North Wessex Downs The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) (also known as the Chalkenwolds) is located in the English counties of West Berkshire, Hampshire,
Georgian society in Jane Austen's novels absent from her novels, such as the American Revolutionary War and the loss of the Thirteen Colonies, the French Revolution, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the birth of the British Empire. Indeed, rather than a depiction of the history of English society at large, Jane Austen's novels provide an understanding of the way of life of the lowest level of the gentry in rural England at the turn of the 19th century. All of Jane Austen's novels are set against the background of daily life in English Georgian society at the turn of the 19th century. As the