Netley Abbey was founded in the thirteenth century, but possessed a rich life after its Dissolution, first as a country residence of one of Hampshire’s leading new landowners and later as a ruin. In its latter form it became more famous than ever before, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The abbey’s popularity benefitted from Southampton’s revival, as a spa and holiday town. The picturesque ruins were well known to inhabitants and visitors, and stimulated a novel, a play and a plethora of poems and illustrations.  All of this was part of the revived interest in Gothic architecture and ruins, seen in some of the new buildings in the town. Among the inhabitants of this flourishing town was Jane Austen, who was one of many authors influenced by the Gothic.