Barton Cottage is the fictional home of the Dashwood women in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1813). It is located in Devonshire in the novel and thus a very long way from Norland Park, Norland Estate, in Sussex, where they had lived with their father, Mr. Henry Dashwood, nephew of "the old Gentleman" who instead of leaving the estate to Mr. Henry Dashwood, left it to Mr. Henry Dashwood's son (by his first wife), Mr. John Dashwood and then to John's four-year old son." This decision puts the Dashwood women of Mr. Henry Dashwood's second marriage in a very precarious position, and when Henry dies, they are effectively disinherited and lose their home, Norland Park. Mrs. Dashwood's cousin offers them Barton Cottage on his Barton Estate, near Exeter, which is why they move to Devonshire (Austen, Sense and Sensibility, 61-3).

Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. edited by Kathleen James-Cavan, Broadview, 2001.

Attribution: Derek Harper / Blackpool Mill

Used as setting of Barton Cottage in television adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.