Ufa
JANE AUSTEN
By the same Author
STORY OF THE
PRINCESS DES URSINS
IN SPAIN
Demy 8vo
/a*i& tluj'ferv
JANE AUSTEN
HER HOMES & HER FRIENDS
BY
CONSTANCE HILL
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ELLEN G.
HILL, AND REPRODUCTIONS
IN PHOTOGRAVURE, ETC.
JOHN LANE
LONDON AND NEW YORK
MDCCCCII
SH*
$
!
V '•'
Printed by Ballantvne, Hanson 6* Co.
London &> Edinburgh
PREFACE
It has been remarked that " in works of genius
there is always something intangible — something
that can befell but that cannot be clearly defined
— something that eludes us when we attempt to
put it into words." This "intangible something"
— this undefinable charm — is felt by all Jane
Austen's admirers. It has exercised a sway of
ever-increasing power over the writer and illus-
trator of these pages ; constraining them to follow
the author to all the places where she dwelt
and inspiring them with a determination to find
out all that could be known of her life and its
surroundings.
Such a pilgrimage in the footprints of a favourite
writer would, alas ! in many cases lead to a sad
disenchantment, but no such pain awaits those
who follow Miss Austen's gentle steps. The more
intimate their knowledge of her character becomes
the more must they admire and love her rare spirit
Preface
and the more thorough must be their enjoyment in
her racy humour — a humour which makes every-
thing she touches delightful, but which never
degenerates into caricature nor into "jestings
which are not convenient." Elizabeth Bennet is
speaking in the author's own person when she
says to Darcy : " I hope I never ridicule what is
wise or good. Follies and nonsense, whims and
inconsistencies do divert me, I own, and I laugh
at them whenever I can." We read in a short
memoir of Miss Austen written by her brother
Henry, "Though the frailties, foibles and follies
of others could not escape her immediate detection,
yet even on their vices did she never trust herself
to comment with unkindness. . . . She always
sought in the faults of others something to excuse,
to forgive or forget."
"Her own family were so much and the rest of
the world so little to Jane Austen " that it is in the
centre of that family that we can best study her
character and learn to recognise the influences
which affected her as a writer. For she was not
amongst those authors who have unveiled in their
letters their innermost thoughts and feelings.
"With all the playful frankness of her manner,"
writes a niece, "her sweet sunny temper and
enthusiastic nature, Jane Austen was a woman
most reticent as to her own deepest and holiest
feelings." And it is, therefore, by seeing her
vi
Preface
nature reflected, as it were, in those around her,
and by finding out gradually the place she held in
their midst, that we learn to know her better. We
are thus enabled, too, to trace the connection
between the author's individual experience and
that of the personages in her novels — personages
who are so real to her readers that their characters
and actions are debated by admirers and non-
admirers alike as those of beings who have actually
walked this earth. "Is there any other writer,"
asks a critic, "in whom men and women can take
an equal interest and discuss on equal terms ? "
But her charm, as we have said, is too impalpable
to be argued about and so, as another critic
remarks, "the only homage her vassals can pay
her in the face of the enemy is to lose their
tempers."
Through the kindness of members of various
branches of the Austen family we have had access
to interesting manuscripts recording the home life
at Steventon, at Chawton and elsewhere, and giving
a picture also of the happy intercourse between
" Aunt Jane " and the many young nephews and
nieces with whom she was always " the centre of
attraction." In addition to this we have had the
loan of family portraits and pictures, as well as of
contemporary sketches representing places asso-
ciated with her which either no longer exist or
are greatly altered. With this help it has been
Preface
possible to reconstruct much which at first sight
seemed to be irrecoverably lost.
We would now request our readers, in imagina-
tion, to put back the finger of Time for more
than a hundred years and to step with us into
Miss Austen's presence. "No one," writes her
brother, "could be often in her company without
feeling a strong desire of obtaining her friendship,
and cherishing a hope of having obtained it."
That friendship seems to be extended to all who,
whether through her works, her biographies or
her letters, can "hold communion sweet" with
the mind and with the heart of Jane Austen.
CONSTANCE HILL.
Grove Cottage, Frognal, Hampstead.
September igoi
CONTENTS
CRAP. PAGE
I. AN ARRIVAL IN AUSTEN-LAND I
II. STEVENTON 5
III. STEVENTON ' 23
IV. THE ABBEY SCHOOL 33
V. STEVENTON AND THE OUTER WORLD 40
VI. THE COUNTY BALL-ROOM 5 1
VII. FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS 62
VIII. SCENES OF EARLY WRITINGS 79
IX. LEAVING STEVENTON gi
X. BATH 95
XI. BATH IOS
XII. BATH 122
XIII. LYME 133
XIV. SOUTHAMPTON 148
XV. STONELEIGH ABBEY l6l
XVI. SETTLING AT CHAWTON 1 69
XVII. CHAWTON 185
XVIII. GODMERSHAM 1 97
ix
Contents
CHAP.
PAGE
XIX. LONDON 2o6
XX. CHAWTON 22I
XXI. AN EPISODE IN JANE AUSTEN'S LIFE . . . .232
XXII. LAST YEAR AT CHAWTON 24I
XXIII. WINCHESTER 2g3
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Portrait of Jane Austen. (From a water-colour drawing in the
possession of W. Austen Leigh, Esq.) . Frontispiece
The Deane Gate .6
Site of the old Parsonage, Steventon 9
Steventon Parsonage. (Front view.) (After a contemporary
sketch) ii
Entrance to Steventon Church 13
The Squire's Pew 15
The old Manor House 19
Steventon Church 22
Steventon Parsonage. (Back view.) (After a contemporary
sketch) 29
Thatched Mud-Wall 32
A Holiday Feast . . 34
The Abbey Gateway and Abbey School .... 36
Action between the Unicorn and La Tribune. (From a
painting in the possession of Captain Willan, R.N., and
Mrs. Willan) To face 42
xi
List of Illustrations
PAGE
Rev. George Austen presenting his son Edward to Mr. and
Mrs. Thomas Knight. (From a contemporary silhouette in
the possession of Montagu Knight, Esq.) . . To face 48
The County Ball-room at Basingstoke 54
Manydown Park To face 60
Stair-rails in Many down House 61
Deane House 67
The Panelled Room in Deane House 68
Ashe Rectory. (From a sketch by the Rev. Ben. Lefroy) . 71
Doorway in Kempshott House 78
Portraits of Madame de Feuillade and of the Rev. James
Austen. (From miniatures in the possession of Mrs. Bellas)
To face 82
Edward Austen (afterwards Knight). (From a portrait in the
possession of Montagu Knight, Esq.) . . To face 86
The Pump Room, Bath gg
Archway opposite Union Passage 103
The " Minerva Helmet" 107
The Musicians' Gallery in the Upper Rooms, Bath . .110
The Lower Rooms, Bath. (From an old print in the possession
oj Mr. f.F. Median of Bath) 115
The old Theatre, Bath . . . . . . . .117
The " high feathers of the ladies " 121
A Corner of the Drawing-room at 4 Sydney Place, Bath . 123
Vestibule at 4 Sydney Place 127
Canal Bridge in the Sydney Gardens 132
House at Lyme Regis in which Miss Austen lodged . . 136
" Captain Harville's house " 138
xii
List of Illustrations
PAGE
The Assembly Ball-room 143
The old Steps on the Cobb 147
Old City Wall, Southampton 152
Lamp on Walcot Church, Bath 160
Stoneleigh Abbey 162
Old Gate-house, Stoneleigh Abbey 168
Chawt on Cottage To face 170
Parlour in Chawton Cottage, with Jane Austen's Desk . 173
Portrait of Mrs. Austen. (From a silhouette in the possession
of Mrs. Bellas) 179
Turf Walk and Sundial in Grounds of Chawton House . 182
Facsimile of Title-page of first edition of " Sense and Sensi-
bility" 185
Chawton House To face 190
View from Chawton Cottage .... To face 194
Hall in Godmersham House To face 198
" A Young Girl of Spirit " To face 20b
Portrait of Mr. Thomas Knight. (From a painting by George
Romney in the possession of Montagu Knight, Esq.)
To face 202
Portrait of Mrs. Thomas Knight. (From a painting by George
Romney in the possession of Montagu Knight, Esq.)
To face 204
Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn 209
Houses in Hans Place. (From an old print) . . . .213
The Oak-room in Chawton House . . . To face 228
Facsimile of Autograph Letter of Jane Austen . To face 230
Ivory Cup-and-Ball used by Jane Austen .... 231
xiii
List of Illustrations
" Wyards." (From a sketch by the Rev. Ben. Lefroy)
The " Shrubbery Walk," Chawton Cottage .
The House in College Street, Winchester .
The Parlour in College Street ....
Jane Austen's Grave in Winchester Cathedral
PAGE
243
252
255
259
263
The design on the binding of this book is a facsimile of
embroidery upon a muslin scarf worked in satin-stitch
by fane Austen.
xiv
CHAPTER I
AN ARRIVAL IN AUSTEN-LAND
On a fine morning, in the middle of September, a
country chaise was threading its way through
Hampshire lanes. In it were seated two devoted
admirers of Jane Austen, armed with pen and
pencil, who were eager to see the places where
she dwelt, to look upon the scenes that she had
looked upon, and to learn all that could be learnt
of her surroundings.
The chaise in question had been hired in a
country village from a blacksmith, and was driven
by the blacksmith's wife. The good woman
knew little more than we (the travellers) did of
the cross-country journey of twenty-two miles
that lay before us. Still, there would be finger-
posts to direct us and, no doubt, wayfarers to be
questioned ; and in the meantime our sturdy pony
trotted so briskly along that he seemed ready to
accomplish a yet longer journey.
We had studied the map and fancied that by
various short cuts we could accomplish the drive
Jane Austen
before nightfall. But alas for short cuts ! We
were puzzled at the very first choice of byways !
There was nothing for it but to inquire at a group
of roadside cottages. So one of us walked up a
garden glowing- with late summer flowers and
tapped at the entrance-door. No answer came
from within, so we tried another — flanked with
laden apple-trees — and another and another, with
no better success. Then it occurred to us that
the inhabitants must be all away hop-gathering.
We had, indeed, left the villagers hard at work
at our starting-point, where the parson's young
daughter had joined one of the groups and was
busy helping some old women to fill their sacks.
How beautiful were those narrow lanes through
which we passed, with their hedgerows of arching
trees and their steep banks adorned with yellow
bracken and the long sprays of blackberry-bushes
covered with ripening fruit ! The immediate goal
of this journey was none other than Steventon —
the birthplace of Jane Austen ; but Steventon, it
seemed, was a village where no lodging was to
be had, and we had been advised to halt at
Clarken Green, a hamlet within five or six miles
of Steventon, where we might sleep at a small
country tavern. For Clarken Green, therefore,
we were bound.
Once we asked our way of a field labourer we
chanced to meet, but found that he was unaware
An Arrival in Austen-land
of the very existence of Clarken Green. At last,
having arrived at something of a village, a good-
natured innkeeper standing in the midst of his
pigeons and poultry, entered into our difficulties ;
told us that we had come far out of our way and
advised our making for the Basingstoke road.
This, with the aid of his directions, we succeeded
in doing, and towards evening found ourselves
entering: the old town of Basingstoke. After a
short halt w r e again resumed our journey, and
finally, as darkness was closing in, we drew up
triumphantly at the solitary inn of Clarken Green.
But our triumph was of short duration. Within
doors all was confusion — rooms dismantled, pack-
ing-cases choking up the entries, and furniture
piled up against the walls. The innkeeper and
his family, we found, were on the eve of a de-
parture. It was impossible, he said, to receive
us, but he offered us the use of a chaise and a
fresh horse to take us on to Deane — a place a
few miles farther west — where he thought it
possible we might find shelter in a small inn.
The name struck our ears, for Deane has its
associations with the Austen family. There Janes
father and mother spent the first seven years of
their married life. By all means let us go to
Deane ! So bidding farewell to our charioteer,
the blacksmith's wife, as she led her sturdy pony
into the stable, we drove off cheerily along the
3
Jane Austen
darkening roads. Before long a light appeared
between the trees, and in a few minutes we were
stopping in front of a low, rambling, whitewashed
building — the small wayside inn of Deane Gate.
Our troubles were now over, and much we
enjoyed our cosy supper, which we ate in a tiny
parlour of spotless cleanliness. A chat with our
landlady gave us the welcome intelligence that we
were within two miles of Steventon, Our small
tavern and Gatehouse (as it was formerly) stood,
she said, where the lane for Steventon joins the
main road to the west. This, no doubt, would
give it importance for the Austens and their
country neighbours ; and we recalled the words
of Jane in one of her letters, when speaking of a
drive from Basingstoke to Steventon she says:
" We left Warren at Dean Gate on our way home."
So we fell asleep that night with the happy
consciousness that we were really in Austen-land.
CHAPTER II
STEVENTON
" By hedge-row elms on hillocks green?
The sun shone brightly on our first morning
in Austen-land, and showed us that we were in
a peaceful country of green pastures and low
wooded hills. My companion was soon seated
by the roadside making a sketch of the inn,
whilst I took a hurried peep at the small village
of Deane and at Deane Manor House, a fine
seventeenth -century building, whose grounds
adjoin the churchyard. But we shall return
to Deane later on, and must now hasten to
Steventon. The chaise that brought us from
Clarken Green last evening is waiting to take us
there.
As we drive along Deane Lane we think of
the family party which made that same journey
a hundred and thirty years ago. When Mr. and
Mrs. George Austen quitted Deane in 177 1,
to make their home at Steventon, Deane Lane
"was a mere cart track, so cut up by deep
5
Jane Austen
ruts as to be impassable for a light carriage.
Mrs. Austen, who was not then in strong health,
THE DEANE GATE
performed the short journey on a feather bed,
placed upon some soft articles of furniture in the
wao-eon which held their household goods."*
* " Memoir of Jane Austen," by J. E. Austen- Leigh.
6
Steventon
We seem to see the quaint caravan moving in
front of us, as we follow the same track and look,
as the Austens did, upon the green slopes of Ashe
Park on either side of the lane.
Leaving the park, the road turns abruptly to the
right, and we find ourselves entering the sunny
village of Steventon, which lies in a gentle hollow.
We alight from our chaise and walk between the
gardens of pretty cottages that border the road.
These cottages, it seems, form the village, and
passing them we proceed along Steventon Lane.
A knoll, on the left, is surmounted by the new
rectory, and on the right, green fields and woods
cover a hillside, on the top of which, we are told,
we shall find the church. Presently we reach a
meadow at the foot of the hill and notice that the
ground slopes up to a grassy terrace. This is the
place ! We cannot mistake it. This is the site
of the old parsonage-house where Jane Austen
was born! For her nephew tells us that "along
the upper or southern side of the garden ran a
terrace of the finest turf." There is the very
terrace described ! We know that the house
stood between it and the lane, but what is the
exact site ? Can no one tell us ? May there not
be some person yet living who remembers the
parsonage pulled down in 1826?
Inspired by this idea, we hurry back to the
cottages and speculate upon each open door as to
7
Jane Austen
what might be gained from its dark interior. At
last we see an old man leaning on his garden-
gate.
" Can you tell us," we anxiously inquire, "where
the old parsonage stood in which the Austen
family lived long ago ? "
"Ay, that I can," he exclaims : "maybe you've
seen the field at the corner where the church lane
cooms out o' Steventon Lane ? Well, if you saw
that, did you notice a pump in the middle o' the
field?"
"Yes, yes!"
"Well, that pump stood i' the washhouse at
the back o' the parsonage. There's a well under
the pump. The Austens got their water from
that well. I was a little 'un when the old house
was pulled down, but I well recollect seeing all
the bricks and rubbish lyin' about on the ground."
"The house faced the road, did it not?" we
ask.
"Yes; and the gates o' the drive were at the
corner o' the field, between the church lane and
Steventon Lane. I remember when you could
make out the line o' the drive quite well, 'cause
the grass grew poor and thin where the gravel
had been."
Presently we learn that our informant's grand-
father, whose name was Littlewart, was coachman
to Mr. James Austen, Jane's eldest brother.
8
Steventon
" I used to hear a deal about the Austens when
I was a lad," continued our friend, " from my
THE SITE OF THE OLD PARSONAGE. STEVENTON
mother, for she was a god-daughter o' Miss
Jane's. People tell me now that Miss Jane wrote
some fine stories, and I've just seen her name in
9
Jane Austen
a newspaper. I'll go and fetch the paper for
you to see." And the old man hurries into his
cottage.
Whilst he is away I refer to a volume of Jane
Austen's Letters which I carry under my arm, to
see if, by chance, the name of Littlewart occurs
in any of them. Yes ! here it is in one dated
November 1798. Jane is writing from Steventon
to a sister-in-law, and after telling her that " their
family affairs are somewhat deranged " owing to
illness among the servants, she goes on to say :
" You and Edward will be amused, I think, when
you know that Nanny Littlewart dresses my
hair." It was evidently this Nanny Littlewart's
daughter that was godchild to Jane Austen. So
we have been actually talking to the son of her
god-daughter !
After showing proper appreciation of the news-
paper paragraph, we return to the meadow where
the parsonage stood. My companion sits down
on a bank to sketch the terrace and the pump, for
the pump, barely noticed before, has become
interesting now as the only visible relic of the
Austens' home. Meanwhile I wander over the
field endeavouring to
" Summon from the shadowy past
The forms that once have been."
I can now picture to myself the exact spot
Steventon
where the parsonage stood, and can fancy the
carriage drive approaching it "between turf and
trees" from the ^ates at the corner of the two
lanes. I can even fancy the house itself, being
familiar with two old pencil views of it taken by
members of the Austen family. These show that
the front had a latticed porch, and that the back
STEVENTON" PARSONAGE (FRONT VIEW)
had two projecting wings and looked on to the
garden which sloped up to the terrace " walk."
In both sketches fine trees are introduced, and as
I saunter about I notice some great flat stumps of
elm-trees in the grass. The sight of these brings
to mind a letter of Jane's, written in November
1800, in which she says : " We have had a dread-
ful storm of wind in the fore part of this day,
which has done a great deal of mischief anion e
our trees. I was sitting alone in the dininsf-room
Jane Austen
when an odd kind of crash startled me ; in a
moment afterwards it was repeated. I then went
to the window, which I reached just in time to see
the last of our two highly-valued elms descend
into the Sweep ! ! ! ! The other, which had fallen,
I suppose, in the first crash, and which was the
nearest to the pond, taking a more easterly direc-
tion, sank among our screen of chestnuts and firs,
knocking down one spruce fir, beating off the
head of another, and stripping the two corner
chestnuts of several branches in its fall. This is
not all. One large elm, out of the two on the
left-hand side as you enter what I call the elm
walk, was likewise blown down ; the maple bear-
ing the weathercock was broke in two, and what
I regret more than all the rest is, that all the three
elms which grew in Hall's meadow, and gave
such ornament to it, are gone ; two were blown
down, and the other so much injured that it
cannot stand. I am happy to add," she continues,
"that no greater evil than the loss of trees has
been the consequence of the storm in this place,
or in our immediate neighbourhood. We grieve
therefore in some comfort." #
The " elm walk " alluded to, which is some-
times called the "wood walk" in the " Letters,"
extended from the terrace westward and led to a
rustic shrubbery. The shrubbery has disappeared,
:;: " Memoir," by J. E. Austen-Leigh.
12
Steventon
but there are groups of trees on the slope of the
_ ._. .: lytffr -irw»
•» i/,.
»•»■ ■» /#
ENTRANCE TO STEVENTON CHURCH
terrace that may have shaded the " walk." One
group is especially beautiful. It consists of tall
sycamores with their pale grey stems and dark
13
Jane Austen
green foliage, among which an old thorn has
entwined its branches. We read in one of the
" Letters " from Steventon : " The bank along the
elm walk is sloped down for the reception of
thorns and lilacs."
Perhaps these features of her home may have
been in the author's mind when she described
"Cleveland" in "Sense and Sensibility." "It
had no park, but the pleasure grounds were
tolerably extensive. . . . It had its open shrubbery
and closer wood walk. . . . The house itself was
under the guardianship of the fir, the mountain
ash, and the acacia."
The ground between the house and the terrace
" was occupied by one of those old-fashioned
gardens in which vegetables and flowers are
combined, flanked and protected on the east by
one of the thatched mud walls common in that
country, and overshadowed by fine elms." # I
look on the sloping grass " where once this garden
smiled," and fancy I see fruit-trees and flowers
and that I even catch a glimpse of two girlish
forms moving among them — those of Jane Austen
and her sister Cassandra ; that only sister so dear
to the heart of Jane, of whom she spoke, " even in
the maturity of her powers, as of one wiser and
better than herself."
We are told that a path called the " Church
:;: " Memoir," by J. E. Austen-Leigh.
14
THE SQUIRE S i'EW
Steventon
walk " started from the eastern end of the terrace
and ascended the steep hill behind the parsonage
to the church. It ran between " hedgerows under
whose shelter the earliest primroses, anemones,
and wild hyacinths were to be found." Let us
cross the meadow, gentle reader, where the path
ran which the Austens must have trod each
Sunday morning as they walked to church.
Leaving the meadow, we enter a small wood,
and, on emerging from this wood, find ourselves
on high tableland. There above us stands the
church, a modest edifice of sober grey, seen
through a screen of great arching elms and syca-
mores. Behind us stretches a fertile valley fading
into a blue distance. The only sounds that
meet the ear on this still September day are the
twittering of birds and the distant bleating of
sheep. How often must Jane Austen have
listened to these sounds as she passed on her way
to the church !
We follow a path which crosses the churchyard
beneath the boughs of an ancient yew-tree, and
enter the small silent church. Our attention is
caught at once by the squire's pew on the right of
the chancel arch. Square and big and towering
above the modern benches it stands — solid oak
below, but with elegant open tracery above through
which the occupants could see and be seen. In
the Austens' time a family named Digweed rented
17 B
Jane Austen
the Manor of Steventon. Its owner was Mr.
Thomas Knight, a distant relative of the Rev.
George Austen, but the Digweeds held the pro-
perty for more than a hundred years.
After examining, with great interest, many
tablets to Austens and Digweeds, we quit the
dark church and step into the sunshine once
more ; and, passing through a wicket gate, find
ourselves upon a wide spreading lawn adorned
with great sycamores. Beyond the trees rises a
stately mansion of early Tudor date, with its
stone porch, its heavy mullioned windows, and its
great chimney-stacks all wreathed with ivy — the
old Manor House of Steventon.
The house is no longer inhabited, for the
present owner, we learn, has migrated to a new
mansion erected hard by, but the old building
itself has suffered no alteration, as far as its
outward walls are concerned, since the Digweeds
lived there, when there was much intercourse
between the squire's and the rector's families.
We sit down upon a grassy bank under the
shade of tall limes and, looking to the right of
the old grey building, we can see the corner of a
gay flower garden, whose red and white dahlias
and yellow sunflowers rise above a high box hedge.
To our left is a bowling-green, across which the
shadows of great trees are sweeping. Whilst my
companion sketches the porch of the Manor House
iS
i\ '
THE OLD MANOR HOUSE
Steventon
I turn over the leaves of Jane Austen's " Letters "
and my eye falls upon these playful remarks,
written in November 1800 to her sister Cassandra :
" The three Digweeds all came on Tuesday, and
we played a pool at commerce. James Digweed
left Hampshire to-day. I think he must be in
love with you, from his anxiety to have you go
to the Faversham balls, and likewise from his
supposing that the two elms fell from their grief at
your absence. Was not it a gallant idea ? It never
occurred to me before, but I daresay it was so."
We are told that " Mr. Austen used to join
Mr. Digweed in buying twenty or thirty sheep,
and that all might be fair it was their custom to
open the pen, and the first half of the sheep which
ran out were counted as belonging to the rector.
Going down to the fold on one occasion after this
process had been gone through, Mr. Austen re-
marked one sheep among his lot larger and finer
than the rest ' Well, John,' he observed to John
Bond (his factotum), ' I think we have had the
best of the luck with Mr. Digweed to-day, in
getting that sheep.' ' Maybe not so much in the
luck as you think, sir,' responded the faithful John,
4 1 see'd her the moment I come in and set eyes on
the sheep, so when we opened the pen I just giv'd
her a " huck " with my stick, and out a' run.' " #
* " Letters of Jane Austen," edited, with an Introduction and
Critical Remarks, by Edward, Lord Brabourne. Macmillan.
21
Jane Austen
When evening approaches we leave the old
manor house and its smooth lawns under the
glowing light of the setting sun and descend the
hill to Steventon Lane. There our chaise awaits
us and we make our way, not back to Deane,
but on to Popham Lane, the main road between
Basingstoke and Micheldever, and establish our-
selves at an old posting inn, called the Wheat-
sheaf, which we find will be within reach of many
a place visited by Jane Austen as well as of
Steventon.
,-- ^■^^ym^m^ irzff ^
CHAPTER III
STEVENTON
" Love and Joy and friendly Mirth
Bless this roof, these walls, this hearth."
We are soon again at Steventon, and now, whilst
sketches of the manor house and of the church
are progressing, I will glance through my note-
books, and endeavour to realise the conditions of
life in Steventon Parsonage more than a hundred
years ago.
Jane Austen, who, as many of us are aware, was
born on December 16, 1775, passed the greater
part of her life in Hampshire, first at Steventon
and afterwards at Chawton, Just twelve years
later than this date, on the same day of the same
month, and in the same county, a sister authoress
was born. The two writers never met, but we shall
find that they frequently cross and recross each
other's path — a fortunate circumstance indeed, for
the writings of Mary Russell Mitford often describe
the surroundings of Jane Austen.
Miss Mitford's grandfather, Dr. Russell, was
Jane Austen
rector of Ashe, near Steventon, and her mother,
before her marriage, was acquainted with the
Austen family, although Jane herself was then
only a child. Mary Russell Mitford's path in
literature is much more confined than that of her
greater contemporary, but it is pleasant to see
that the two writers approached their art in the
same spirit and chose the same setting or back-
ground for their stories, a background which was
familiar to both.
In the opening pages of " Our Village," the
author, after dwelling upon the attractions of life
in a rural hamlet, remarks : " Even in books I
like a confined locality, and so do the critics when
^ they talk of the ' Unities.' Nothing is so tiresome
as to be whirled half over Europe at the chariot-
wheels of a hero, to go to sleep at Vienna and
awaken at Madrid ; it produces a real fatigue, a
weariness of spirit. On the other hand, nothing
is so delightful as to sit down in a country village
in one of Miss Austen's delicious novels, quite
sure before we leave it to become intimate with
every spot and every person it contains." Miss
Mitford loved to write of a small compact com-
munity, "a little world of our own" she calls it,
" close packed and insulated like ants in an ant-
hill, or bees in a hive, or sheep in a fold, or
nuns in a convent, or sailors in a ship ; where we
know every one, are known to every one, and
24
/
Steventon
authorised to hope that every- one feels an interest
in us."
Miss Austen also loved "a confined locality in
books." She writes to a young niece, who had
asked for her advice and criticisms respecting a
novel she was composing: "You are collecting
your people delightfully, getting them exactly
into such a spot as is the delight of my life.
Three or four families in a country village is the
very thing to work on, and I hope you will do a
great deal more, and make full use of them while
they are so favourably arranged."
A third distinguished author, Gilbert White,
born many years earlier than Jane Austen, was
still living and in Hampshire during her girlhood,
and whilst she was learning her lessons he was
recording at Selborne in his letters and diaries
the various occurrences of his " tranquil uneventful
life," told with all "the simple humour of a happy
naturalist"
It is remarkable that these three writers, who
have each left such a powerful mark on the litera-
ture of our country, should have been born in the
same county and have been, for some years at
least, contemporaries. And it is also remarkable
that they, who have given to the world works so
full of peace and happiness and racy humour,
should have lived through the tragic period of the
French Revolution. A faint echo of the storm
Jane Austen
comes to us occasionally in their letters, but their
works reflect only their own healthful natures and
peaceful surroundings.
We must remember, however, that in those
days foreign intelligence came slowly and long
after the event, and that travelling, which now
unites all nations in personal knowledge of each
other, was then difficult and expensive. Even at
home the movements of country people were
much restricted by the condition of the roads.
Mr. Austen- Leigh, in his biography of his aunt,
tells us that " it was not unusual to set men to
work with shovel and pickaxe to fill up ruts and
holes " in side roads and lanes " on such special
occasions as a funeral or a wedding." The
Rev. George Austen kept " a pair of carriage
horses," which were necessary in those days "if
ladies were to move about at all ; " the style of
carriage then in vogue being too heavy to be
drawn by a single horse over the rough roads.
" The horses, probably, like Mr. Bennet's in
1 Pride and Prejudice,' were often employed in
farm work."
Ladies did not walk much abroad. Their shoes
were too thin for such exercise. We remember
how Elizabeth Bennet, on first arriving at
Hunsford, turned back when Mr. Collins, in the
pride of his heart, wished to take her from the
inspection of his garden to that of his meadow,
26
Steventon
f* not having shoes to encounter the remains of a
white frost." And yet Elizabeth was attired for
travelling, having just alighted from a postchaise
that had brought her and her friends from London.
It is true that in bad^ weather ladies could walk
for a short distance in pattens, which were foot-
clogs supported upon an iron ring that raised the
wearer a couple of inches from the ground. But
these were clumsy contrivances. The rings made
a clinking noise on any hard surface, and there
is a notice in the vestibule of an old church in
Bath, stating that "it is requested by the church-
wardens that no persons walk in this church with
pattens on."
Many country ladies, however, like Mrs. Prim-
rose, were too much engaged with domesticities
to have even time for much walking. Young
ladies often assisted in cooking the daintier parts
of the family meals. Recipes were handed down
from generation to generation. "One house
would pride itself on its ham, another on its
game-pie, and a third on its superior furmity or
tansey-pudding. Beer and home-made wines,
especially mead, were largely consumed." Miss
Austen remarks in one of her letters : "We hear
that there is to be no honey this year. Bad news
for us. We must husband our stock of mead. I
am sorry to perceive that our stock of twenty
gallons is nearly out" Our ancestors must have
27
Jane Austen
required some patience in the production of this
beverage, for, according to a cookery book,
mead, made in the old style, had to stand for
fifteen months before it was fit for use ; made
in the modern style it stands but for half an
hour.
Mr. Austen-Leigh feels sure that the ladies of
the parsonage house "had nothing to do with the
mysteries of the stew-pot or the preserving pan
. . . but it is probable," he adds, " that their way
of life differed a little from ours, and would have
appeared to us more homely." Jane frequently
managed the housekeeping for her mother during
the absence of her elder sister. Writing to
Cassandra in November 1798, she remarks play-
fully : "My mother desires me to tell you that
I am a very good housekeeper, which I have
no reluctance in doing, because I really think it
my peculiar excellence, and for this reason — I
always take care to provide such things as please
my own appetite, which I consider as the chief
merit in housekeeping."
A frequent visitor at the parsonage was Jane's
little niece Anna — the child of her eldest brother
James by his first wife who died in 1795. This
lady had "been a very tender mother, and the
poor little girl missed her so much and kept so
constantly asking for ' mama ' that her father sent
her to Steventon to be taken care of and con-
28
Steventon
soled by her aunts Cassandra and Jane." This
'Anna' has left in manuscript the following
description of the house and of its inmates :
"The rectory at Steventon had been of the
^•'-
STEVENTON PARSONAGE (BACK VIEW)
most miserable description, but in the possession
of my grandfather it became a tolerably roomy
and convenient habitation ; he added and im-
proved, walled in a good kitchen garden, and
planted out the east wind, enlarging the house
29
Jane Austen
until it came to be considered a very comfortable
family residence.
"On the sunny side was a shrubbery and
flower garden, with a terrace walk of turf which
communicated by a small gate with what was
termed 'the wood walk,' a path winding through
clumps of underwood and overhung by tall elm-
trees, skirting the upper side of the home
meadows. The lower bow-window, which looked
so cheerfully into the sunny garden and up the
middle grass walk bordered with strawberries, to
the sundial at the end, was that of my grand-
father's study, his own exclusive property, safe
from the bustle of all household cares.
"The dining, or common sitting-room, looked
to the front and was lighted by two casement
windows. On the same side the front door
opened into a much smaller parlour, and visitors,
who were few and rare, were not a bit the less
welcome to my grandmother because they found
her sitting there busily engaged with her needle,
making and mending.
"In later times ... a sitting-room was made
upstairs, ' the dressing-room,' as they were pleased
to call it, perhaps because it opened into a smaller
chamber in which my two aunts slept. I re-
member the common - looking carpet with its
chocolate ground, and the painted press with
shelves above for books, and Jane's piano, and an
30
Steven ton
oval glass that hung between the windows ; but
the charm of the room, with its scanty furniture
and cheaply-papered walls, must have been, for
those old enough to understand it, the flow of
native household wit, with all the fun and non-
sense of a large and clever family. Here were
written the two first of my aunt Jane's completed
works, ' Sense and Sensibility ' and ' Pride and
Prejudice.' "
The same niece writes of her grandfather,
the Rev. George i\usten : "As a young man I
have always understood that he was considered
extremely handsome, and it was a beauty which
stood by him all his life. At the time when I
have the most perfect recollection of him he must
have been hard upon seventy, but his hair in its
milk-whiteness mia-rit have belonged to a much
older man. It was very beautiful, with short
curls about the ears. His eyes were not large,
but of a peculiar and bright hazel. My aunt
Jane's were something like them, but none of the
children had precisely the same excepting my
uncle Henry.
" His wife (Cassandra Leigh) used always to
say 'she had never been a beauty,' but that may
have been only by comparison with her sister
Jane, who married the Rev. Edward Cooper and
who was remarkably handsome.
" Cassandra was a little, slight woman, with fine,
3 1
Jane Austen
well-cut features, large grey eyes, and good eye-
brows, but without any brightness of complexion.
She was amusingly particular about people's noses,
having a very aristocratic one herself, which she
had the pleasure of transmitting to a good many
of her children.
" She was a quick-witted woman with plenty of
sparkle and spirit in her talk, who could write an
excellent letter, either in prose or verse, making
no pretence to poetry but being simply playful
common sense in rhyme.
" During the early part of her married life her
usual dress was a riding-habit made of scarlet
cloth, which in due course was cut up into jackets
and trousers for her boys."
CHAPTER IV
THE ABBEY SCHOOL
" The ancient monastery s halls,
A solemn pile."
The same writer, who gives us the description of
Steventon Parsonage and its inhabitants, speaks
of a school at Readino-, to which, at an earlier
date, her aunts Cassandra and Jane were sent.
The school adjoined the remains of the ancient
Abbey of Reading, and was called the Abbey
School. It was kept by a Madame Latournelle,
an Englishwoman, but widow of a Frenchman.
"This school at Reading," writes Miss F. C.
Lefroy, # "was rather a free and easy one judging
by Mrs. Sherwood's f account of it when she was
there some years later (than the Austens), and when
several French emigrh were among its masters.
In Cassandra and Jane's days the girls do not
seem to have been kept very strictly, as they and
their cousin, Jane Cooper, were allowed to accept
■'■' A daughter of " Anna's.*'
f Author of the " Fairchild Family " and other popular tales. .
33 c
Jane Austen
an invitation to dine at an inn with their re-
spective brothers, Edward Austen and Edward
Cooper."
We seem to see the merry faces of the five
young people and to hear their eager chatter as
they sat at table in the old-fashioned inn parlour
enjoying their holiday feast ! Jane was very
young at that time, for she was sent to school
A HOLIDAY FEAST
" not because she was thought old enough to
profit much by the instruction there imparted,
but because she would have been miserable (at
home) without her sister ; her mother observing
that ' if Cassandra were going to have her head
cut off, Jane would insist on sharing her fate.' " #
Did the Abbey School, we wonder, serve as a
model for Mrs. Goddard's school in "Emma"?
Mrs. Goddard " was a plain motherly kind of
* " Memoir," by J. E. Austen-Leigh.
34
The Abbey School
woman," we are told, whose school was " not a
seminary, or an establishment, or anything which
professed, in long sentences of refined nonsense,
to combine liberal acquirements with elegant
morality upon new principles and new systems,
and where young ladies, for enormous pay, might
be screwed out of health and into vanity ; but a
real honest old-fashioned boarding-school, where a
reasonable quantity of accomplishments were sold
at a reasonable price, and where girls might be
sent to be out of the way, and scramble themselves
into a little education without any danger of
coming back prodigies." Mrs. Goddard " had an
ample house and garden, gave the children plenty
of wholesome food, let them run about a great
ideal in the summer, and in winter dressed their
chilblains with her own hands."
Mrs. Sherwood (then Miss Butt), who went to
i the Reading schocl in 1790, about eight years
after Jane Austen had left it, tells us that "the
greater part of the house was encompassed by a
jbsautiful old-fashioned garden, where the young
! ladies were allowed to wander under tall trees in
'hot summer evenings." Around two parts of this
garden was an artificial embankment, from the
[top of which, she says, " we looked down upon
certain magnificent ruins, as I suppose, of the
church I begun by Henry I., and consecrated by
jBecket in 11 25." The abbey itself consisted
35
Jane Austen
partly of the remains of an ancient building, once
the abode of the Benedictine monks, and "the
third in size and wealth of all English abbeys,"
and partly of additions made to the structure in
more modern times. Mrs. Sherwood speaks of
" an antique gateway with rooms above its arch,
and with vast staircases on either side, whose
P7V3
HfiA!
Who rmti'
'"■■ -"J&ni I pifl i] \\ rlMk
. • 'y,.<i0p^ ■■•■ ~^ r ^'
THE ABBEY GATEWAY AND ABBEY SCHOOL
balustrades had originally been gilt." This gate-
way "stood without the garden walls, looking
upon the Forbury, or open green, which belonged
to the town, and where Dr. Valpy's # boys
played after school hours." We have been
fortunate in discovering an old print of this same
" antique gateway," which also shows a part of thel
school-house itself. Beyond the Forbury there!
* Head-master of the Grammar School.
36
The Abbey School
I rose the tower of the fine old church of Saint
Nicholas," while, near at hand, was "the jutting
corner of Friar Street " and the " old irregular
shops of the market-place."
The abbey, with its past history and its relics ot
ancient grandeur, must have been a delightful
abode to the child Jane Austen, and may it not
have suesfested to her mind in later life some of
the features of " Northanger Abbey " ?
Mrs. Sherwood tells us that Mrs. Latournelle
i was a person of the old school — a stout person
hardly under seventy, but very active, although
she had a cork leg. She had never been seen or
known to have changed the fashion of her dress.
Her white muslin handkerchief was always pinned
with the same number of pins, her muslin apron
always hung in the same form ; she always wore
the same short sleeves, cuffs, and ruffles, with a
breast bow to answer the bow in her cap, both
being flat with two notched ends."
" Mrs. Latournelle received me," she writes,
upon her first arrival at school, "in a wainscoted
parlour, the wainscot a little tarnished, while the
room was hung round with chenille pieces repre-
senting tombs and weeping willows. A screen in
cloth- work stood in a corner, and there were
several miniatures over the lofty mantel-piece."
Mrs. Sherwood describes her sojourn at this
school as a "very happy one," remarking that
37
Jane Austen
" from the ease and liveliness of the mode of
life" it "had been particularly delightful " to her.
Before she left, the school had passed into the
hands of a Monsieur and Madame St. Quintin
(the former being- a French Smigrd), while Mrs.
Latournelle acted chiefly as their housekeeper.
A few years later Monsieur and Madame St.
Quintin removed to London and started a board-
ing-school in Hans Place. Thither Miss Mitford
went as a pupil in 1798. Many of the traditions
of the Reading school were continued in London.
Mrs. Sherwood speaks of the theatrical entertain-
ments with which the school terms closed in her
day, and possibly these were introduced even
earlier. The Austens, as a family, were fond of
acting and excelled in it ; and though Cassandra
and Jane, when they were at school, would have
been too young to take the direction of such
matters, they would gladly have taken part in
them. We read in Miss Mitford's Life : " Before
the pupils went home at Easter or Christmas
there was either a ballet, when the sides of the
school-room were fitted up with bowers, in which
the little girls, who had to dance, were seated, and
whence they issued at a signal from Monsieur
Duval, the dancing-master, attired as sylphs or
shepherdesses, to skip or glide through the mazy
movements, to the music of his kit ; or there was
a dramatic performance, as when the same room
38
The Abbey School
was converted into a theatre for the representa-
tion of Hannah More's 'Search after Happiness';
and an elocution-master attended the rehearsals
and instructed the actors in their parts."
On one occasion Miss Mitfordhad to recite the
prologue, but before doing this it was considered
necessary by the dancing-master that she should
perform an elaborate curtsey — a curtsey that should
comprehend in its respectful sinking, turning in a
semicircle and rising again, the whole audience.
This manoeuvre was practised at the last dress
rehearsal again and again under Monsieur Duval's
vociferous instructions, the pupil secretly longing
to effect her escape, when suddenly there appeared
on the stage the professor of elocution, " a sour
pedant of Oxford growth," who denounced the
curtsey as ridiculous. Whereupon a scene ensued
between the crentlemen much like that in the
"Bourgeois Gentilhomme" between the Maitre
de Philosophic and the Maitre de Danse — which
happily ended in a verdict that the elaborate
curtsey should be abolished and that three short
bends of the body should be given in its place.
39
CHAPTER V
STEVENTON AND THE OUTER WORLD
" ' Tis pleasant through the loopholes of retreat
To peep at such a world. ..."
Having glanced backwards at " the short school
course " of Cassandra and Jane we will return
with them, in fancy, to Steventon Parsonage.
Let us take a peep into " the common sitting-
room with its two casement windows looking to
the front ; " that is to say commanding a view
across the "sweep" and green lawn, to Steventon
Lane, and beyond the lane to the grassy slopes of
a hill, crowned with wood, that rises on the
further side of the shallow valley.
In this sitting-room, as in the other rooms of
the parsonage, we are told, " no cornice marked
the junction of wall and ceiling, and the great
beams, which supported the floor above, projected
into the room below, covered only by a coat of
paint or whitewash. Carpets were used sparingly
in those days even in grand houses. We remem-
ber that in describing the "Great House" at
40
Steventon and the Outer World
11 Uppercross " the old-fashioned parlour is spoken
of " with a small carpet and shining floor, to which
the present daughters of the house were giving
the proper air of confusion by a grand piano and
a harp." In the Steventon parlour the polished
floor would reflect the light from the two casement
windows, and those windows would have, pro-
bably, curtains hung on runner cords such as
Cowper alludes to in the " Task " when he
exclaims :
M Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round.
So let us welcome peaceful evening in."
Other details we can also imagine — the stiff-
backed chairs with carpet-worked seats, the Pem-
broke table in the centre, like that upon which
Mr. Woodhouse had always been accustomed to
have his meals ; the fireplace with hobs and high
moulded chimney-piece, adorned with miniatures
in black frames. Anions these miniatures we
may fancy the portraits of Jane's two sailor
brothers, for these are still in existence. One is
a coloured likeness of Francis in the picturesque
uniform cf a naval officer at the end of the
eighteenth century, the other a pencil sketch of
Charles as a midshipman. We may also venture
to place a tambour frame of polished wood in one
corner of the room, for such a frame we know
41
Jane Austen
Jane used for her delicate embroidery ; and we
may fancy, perhaps, the best gilt tea-service seen
behind the lattice windows of a corner cupboard.
Writing one December evening to Cassandra,
who was staying with their brother Edward and
his family at Godmersham Park, Jane remarks :
" We dine now at half-past three and have done
dinner, I suppose, before you begin. We drink
tea at half-past six. I am afraid you will despise
us. My father reads Cowper to us. How do you
spend your evenings ? "
Life flowed peacefully and quietly, as a rule, at
the parsonage, but every now and then a great
whiff of excitement came from the outer world in
the shape of letters from the brothers at sea, who
were both servino- in our m-eat naval wars. To
o o
read of their exploits and of their heroism, as
recorded in naval histories and biographies, seems
to bring us very near to Captain Wentworth,
Captain Harville and young William Price.
Francis was a year and a half older than Jane,
while Charles, the youngest of the family, was
her junior by nearly four years. " Our own
particular little brother," she calls him, sometimes,
in letters to her sister.
We hear of Charles, as a young midshipman,
serving on board the Unicorn frigate, under
Captain Thomas Williams. Captain Williams
had married the Austen's cousin Jane Cooper,
42
2 VO
< C*
O r;
- x
C 2
•J <
I 5
id 2
n a
Steventon and the Outer World
who the reader may remember was at the Abbey
School with Jane and Cassandra, and who formed
one of the party of five young people who dined
together at the Reading Inn. The Unicorn did
battle with many a ship sailing under the enemy's
flag, and we read in James's " History of the
British Navy," of her taking captive the Dutch
brig-of-war Co?net, the French troopship La Vilie
de r Orient and the French frigate La Tribune.
The action with the Tribune took place off the
Scilly Isles on June 8, 1796. It is represented
in the accompanying print, which is taken from a
picture, painted in oils upon a wooden panel, now
in the possession of a granddaughter of Charles
Austen. The picture is supposed to have been
painted by one of the officers of the Unicorn.
The two ships carried on a running fight we read
for ten hours. During this fight the Unicorn
suffered greatly in sails and rigging, being at
one time almost disabled. Twice the Tribune
attempted to make her escape, under cover of the
enveloping smoke, and twice was she pursued by
the Unicorn till finally that ship getting to close
quarters, discharged a "few well-directed broad-
sides " which brought down the mainmast, mizen
and topmast of the Tribime and forced her to
surrender.
In the meantime, Francis, who from his ex-
cellent conduct " was marked out by the Lords of
43
Jane Austen
the Admiralty for early promotion," had seen
much service in the East Indies and elsewhere.
In 1798, he was serving as Senior Lieutenant in
various ships on the home station.
Jane writes to her sister Cassandra on Decem-
ber 1 of that year. " I have just heard from
Frank. He was at Cadiz alive and well on
October 19, and had then very lately received a
letter from you, written as long ago as when the
London was at St. Heliers. Lord St. Vincent
had left the fleet when he wrote, and was gone to
Gibraltar.
" Frank writes in good spirits, but says that our
correspondence cannot be so easily carried on in
future, as it has been, as the communication
between Cadiz and Lisbon is less frequent than
formerly. You and my mother, therefore, must
not alarm yourselves at the long intervals that
may divide his letters. I address this advice to
you two as being the most tender-hearted of the
family."
A little later she writes : " I have got some
pleasant news for you which I am eager to
communicate.
"Admiral Gambier, in reply to my father's appli-
cation, writes as follows : ' With regard to your
son now in the London, I am glad I can give you
the assurance that his promotion is likely to take
place very soon, as Lord Spencer has been so
44
Steventon and the Outer World
good as to say he would include him in an arrange-
ment that he proposes making in a short time
relative to some promotion in that quarter.'
" There ! I may now finish my letter and go and
hang myself, for I am sure I can neither write,
nor do, anything which will not appear insipid to
you after this."
A month later Jane writes, joyfully, " Frank is
made ! He was yesterday raised to the rank of
commander and appointed to the Petterel sloop,
now at Gibraltar. A letter from Daysh has just
announced this, and as it is confirmed by a very
friendly one from Mr. Mathew to the same effect,
transcribing one from Admiral Gambier to the
general, we have no reason to suspect the truth
of it."*
Does not this remind us of the letters an-
nouncing young William Price's promotion, when
it appeared from the secretary's note that the
first lord "had the very great happiness of at-
tending to the recommendation of Sir Charles ;
that Sir Charles was much delighted in having
such an opportunity of proving his regard for
Admiral Crawford, and that the circumstance of
Mr. William Price's commission being made out
was spreading general joy through a wide circle
of great people ? "
Jane continues: "As soon as you have cried a
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
45
Jane Austen
little for joy, you may go on, and learn farther
. . . that Lieutenant Charles John Austen is
removed to the Tamar frigate — this comes from
the admiral.
" This letter is to be dedicated entirely to good
news. If you will send my father an account of
your expenses he will send you a draft for the
amount. If you don't buy a muslin gown on the
strength of this money and Frank's promotion I
shall never forgive you." #
The Petterel, we learn from naval records, was
a sloop of twenty-four guns and one hundred and
twenty men. In the June following his assuming
her command, Francis Austen "participated in
Lord Keith's capture of a French squadron under
Rear- Admiral Perree," and early in the year 1800
"he greatly signalised himself in an encounter off
Marseilles with three French vessels, two of which
he drove on to the rocks and the third he captured.
All this was accomplished without the loss of a
man to the Petterel, although thirty of her crew,
together with the first lieutenant and gunners,
were absent." The ship captured was the Ligu-
rienne, "a fine vessel of her class and in excellent
repair. She was built in a very peculiar manner,
being fastened throughout with screw-bolts, so
that she might be taken to pieces and set up
again with ease. She was originally intended, so
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
46
Steventon and the Outer World
said the French prisoners, to follow Buonapart to
Egypt."
A few months later the Petterel formed part of
the squadron of Sir Sydney Smith off the coast
of Egypt. Whilst there Captain Austen, by a
gallant action, prevented a Turkish line of battle-
ship, of eighty guns, from falling into the hands of
the French. The ship had been wrecked near to
the Island of Aboukir and was totally dismantled.
Already three hundred of the enemy had com-
menced their work of plunder when they were
driven off and their prize set on fire ; while
thirteen men, the remainder of the Greek crew,
were saved.
Charles Austen joined his new ship the Tamar
in February 1799, but he was shortly afterwards
reappointed to the Endymion. In this frigate,
commanded by Sir Thomas Williams, his former
captain of the Unicorn, "he came into frequent
contact with the enemy's gun-boats off the
southern coast of Spain and assisted in making
prizes of several privateers. On the occasion of
the capture of the Scipio, of eighteen guns and
one hundred and forty men, which surrendered
during a violent gale, he very intrepidly put off in
a boat with only four men, and having boarded
the vessel, succeeded in retaining possession of
her until the following day," when he handed her
over to his captain.
47
Jane Austen
Jane writes to her sister : " Charles has received
^"30 for his share in the privateer, and expects
,£10 more ; but of what avail is it to take prizes
if he lays out the produce in presents to his
sisters? He has been buying gold chains and
topaz crosses for us. He must be well scolded."*
Great were the rejoicings at the parsonage
when either of the sailor brothers returned home
for a flying visit. We hear of Charles accom-
panying his sister Jane to the balls of the neigh-
bourhood and of his being ''very much admired,"
and being considered by one friend as " handsomer
than Henry." Charles in the meantime enjoyed
the gaiety fully as much as William Price enjoyed
the famous ball at Mansfield Park, and probably
he and his partner were often among "■ the five or
six determined couples who were still hard at
work " at a late hour, when others, like Fanny,
had to retire to rest.
Henry, Jane's third brother, is thus described by
his niece, the "Anna" whose writings we have
already quoted. "He was the handsomest of the
family, and, in the opinion of his own father, the
most talented. There were others who formed a
different estimate, but, for the most part, he was
greatly admired. Brilliant in conversation he
was, and, like his father, blessed with a hopeful-
ness of temper which, in adapting itself to all
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
48
— 'J
~ z
5 *
r- <
z S
r 2
DO
V. ^
< <
— s
*»
J-5^
<&?
MANYDOWN PARK
Steventon and the Outer World
circumstances, even the most adverse, served to
create a perpetual sunshine." That Jane delighted
in his society is evident by her letters.
Out of all her five brothers one only was settled
within reach of Steventon, namely James, the
eldest of the family. Mrs. George Austen said
of this son that " he possessed in the highest
degree, classical knowledge, literary taste, and the
power of elegant composition." Being ten years
older than Jane, it is believed that he had " a large
share in directing her reading and forming her
taste." After a career at college, James took
Holy Orders, and, at the time we are writing of,
had become vicar of Sherborne St. John's ; but he
also acted as resident curate for his father at
Deane. He was twice married. His first wife
(the mother of "Anna") being a daughter of
General Mathew, the Governor of New Granada.
She died suddenly in 1795, and James took for
his second wife a Miss Lloyd, a member of a
family with whom the Austens were intimate.
Edward, Jane's second brother, had been
adopted, when a child, by his cousin, Mr. Thomas
Knight, of Godmersham Park in Kent and of
Chawton House in Hampshire. Mr. Knight had
no children of his own, and Edward Austen even-
tually assumed his name after inheriting his
estates. The event of the boy being handed over
to the Knight family is commemorated in a curious
49 d
Jane Austen
silhouette group which hangs in Chawton House.
Mrs. Knight is represented as seated at a small table
playing at chess with a lady friend, whilst Mr.
Knight, who has been watching the game, stands
behind her chair. Mr. Austen is in the act of pre-
senting his son, and the child — a comical little
figure in a tight-fitting coat and knee-breeches —
stretches out his hands towards his adopted
parents.
Although Edward was thus removed from home
early in life, a strong tie of affection bound him and
his family together. After his marriage we find
his sisters, in turn, frequently visiting him first at
Rowling, a small property in East Kent, belong-
ing to the Bridges family, and afterwards at God-
mersham Park, and Jane's letters, either to or
from these places, show what a lively interest she
took in all that concerned both him and his. His
wife — the " Elizabeth " of the letters — was a
daughter of Sir Brook Bridges, of Goodnestone
in Kent. Mr. Knight died in 1794, and his widow
generously insisted upon handing over the pro-
perty to Edward,* and retired to a house called
"White Friars" in Canterbury. There Jane
occasionally visited her.
:|: Some interesting letters written on this occasion are given in
Mr. Walter Pollock's book, entitled " Jane Austen, her Contem-
poraries and her Critics," which appeared in 1899.
5°
CHAPTER VI
THE COUNTY BALL-ROOM
" On with the dance I let joy be unconfinedP
Miss Jane Austen dearly loved a ball. Who can
doubt this who has read the various descriptions
of balls in her novels — all full, as they are, of life
and movement and racy humour, while each one
is perfectly distinct in character ?
Frequent allusions are made in the " Letters "
to the county balls at Basingstoke. These took
place, it seems, once a month on a Thursday
during the season. They were held in the
1 Assembly Rooms, and were frequented by all the
i well-to-do families of the out-lying neighbour-
hood ; many of them, like the Austens, coming
from long distances, undeterred by the dangers of
dark winter nights, lampless lanes, and stormy
weather.
Now, where could those Assembly Rooms have
been situated ? Guide-books were silent on the
subject ; but probably they formed part of the chief
inn of Basingstoke. We learnt from the country
5i
Jane Austen
people that the " Old Angel," standing in the
market-place, was, in former times, the principal
inn and posting-house.
With a firm determination to discover the
county ball-room or, at least, the place where it
stood, we set off for Basingstoke on a bright
September morning. Having crossed the busy
market-place we drew up in front of the " Angel,"
with its tiled roof and white window frames. The
upper part of the building is evidently unchanged,
but shop-windows occupy the ground floor where
the stage-coaches formerly rolled through a wide
entrance to the yard beyond. The West of
England coaches, we are told, used to halt here
for their passengers to dine, bringing for one
short hour a whirl of excitement and bustle into
the quiet sleepy town.
The house is still a place for refreshment, so
we entered and made inquiries as to its former
condition. The master, in reply, produced an old
bill-head with a view of the inn upon it. We;
noticed, over the coach-entrance, a carved wooden I
lintel. "See, there it is, ma'am," he remarked,)'
pointing to the lintel, which hung from a beam!
across the ceiling. We now questioned him about
the Assembly Rooms, but here he was unable tcj
help us, not knowing anything about them. So|
after taking some lunch, we were regretfully pre
paring to depart when, by chance, we fell in wit);
52
The County Ball-room
the wife of our host. Prepared for disappoint-
ment we put the same questions to her, but now
there came to us a sudden ray of light and lead-
ing - . She told us that above the old stables and
coach-houses at the back of the inn, there was a
large room, now used as a hay-loft, but which, she
had been told, was once a ball-room. In old
times it was connected with the inn by a long
passage, that ran above the stables and harness-
rooms, but now the only access to it was from
the great coaching-yard. Should we like to see
the loft ? The owner of it, and of all the out-
buildings was a horse-dealer, who she was sure
would permit us to do so, and she would, herself,
show us the way.
And so, following our guide, we step into a
paved covered way, and, passing the long low
mangers where the post-horses fed, come out into
the coaching-yard. There on the left stand the
buildings described. We mount some wooden
steps leading to the so-called hay-loft, and in
another moment we find ourselves in the old
Assembly Room ! Piles of hay cover the floor, but
we cannot mistake the place. There are the hand-
some chimney-pieces, the sash windows and the
double-flap doors that mark a reception-room of
importance ; and when we push aside the litter
beneath our feet, the fine even planking of a
dancing-floor appears. As we gaze around us,
53
Jane Austen
the discoloured and mouldering plaster on the
walls, the broken panes, the cobweb festoons, the
forlorn and rusty grates, and the piles of hay all
vanish, and we seem to see the room as it
appeared in its palmy days when prepared for a
county ball. A chandelier, resplendent with wax
candles, hangs in the middle of the room. Its
THE COUNTY BALL-ROOM
lights are reflected in the polished floor beneath
and again in the oval mirrors above the two
chimney-pieces. Fires are blazing in the hearths.
See, there are the musicians, in their tie-wigs and
knee-breeches, just entering, and soon the gay
company will be arriving. Amidst that gay com-
pany there is one figure around which all the
interest of the past is gathered. Let us glance for
a moment at Miss Jane Austen as she enters the
ball-room.
54
The County Ball-room
She is rather tall, is slender, and remarkably
graceful. "Her step is light and firm, and her
whole appearance expressive of health and anima-
tion." In complexion she is "a clear brunette,
with a rich colour, hazel eyes, fine features, and
curling brown hair." Resembling, in fact, her own
Emma Woodhouse, as described by Mrs. Weston
when she exclaims: " Such an eye ! — the true hazel
eye — and so brilliant ! regular features, open coun-
tenance, with a complexion — oh what a bloom of
full health, and such a pretty height and size, such
a firm and upright figure."
And as to her attire, we may fancy Jane wearing
a soft white muslin gown with a frill at the bottom
just falling to her ancles in front and forming a
small train behind; "a bit of the same muslin"
round her head, confined by a narrow band of
ribbon or velvet, and surmounted by " one little
comb " ; " green shoes " on her feet and " a white
fan " in her hand.
Writing- to her sister during the Christmas of
1798, of a ball that had just taken place in the
Assembly Rooms, she says : ''There were thirty-
one people, and only eleven ladies out of the
number. Of the gentlemen present you may have
some idea from the list of my partners : Mr. Wood,
G. Lefroy, Rice, a Mr. Butcher, Mr. Temple, Mr.
William Orde, Mr. John Harwood, and Mr.
Calland, who appeared, as usual, with his hat in
55
Jane Austen
his hand, and stood every now and then behind
Catherine and me to be talked to and abused for
not dancing. We teased him, however, into it at
last. I was very glad to see him again after so
long a separation, and he was altogether rather
the genius and flirt of the evening." * Did this Mr.
Calland, we wonder, suggest some of the traits
of the inimitable Tom Musgrave ?
The "Catharine" alluded to was a Miss
Catherine Bigg, a daughter of Mr. Bigg Wither,
of Manydown Park. This gentleman had
assumed the name of Wither on inheriting the
estate. Manydown is within easy reach of Basing-
stoke, and Jane often stayed there when the
Assembly balls took place. She had done so on
the present occasion.
Writing of another dance, in the Assembly
Rooms, Jane remarks : "It was a pleasant ball,
and still more good than pleasant, for there were
nearly sixty people, and sometimes we had seven-
teen couples. The Portsmouths, Dorchesters,.
Boltons, Portals and Clerks were there, and all
the meaner and more usual etcs. There was a
scarcity of men in general. I danced nine dances
out of ten — five with Stephen Terry, T. Chute,
and James Digweed, and four with Catherine.
There was commonly a couple of ladies standing
up together."*
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
56
The County Ball-room
When the grand people mentioned above
entered the room, we can imagine the same sort
of commotion occurring as is described in " The
Watsons." " After some minutes of extraordinary
bustle without, and watchful curiosity within, the
important party, preceded by the attentive master
of the inn, to open a door which was never shut,
made their appearance." In the present case the
master of the inn, we find, was a man named
Curtis ; his family having managed the " Angel "
for two generations. He was a clever huntsman,
and is mentioned with praise in the " Vine Hunt."
A propos of another ball at the " Rooms," Jane
says : " There were more dancers than the room
could hold, which is enough to constitute a good
ball at any time. I do not think I was very much
in request. People were rather apt not to ask me
till they could not help it. There was one gentle-
man, an officer of the Cheshire, a very good-look-
ing young man, who, I was told, wanted very
much to be introduced to me ; but as he did not
want it quite enough to take much trouble in
effecting it, we never could bring it about." And
again she writes : " Our ball was chiefly made up
of Jervoises and Terrys. I had an odd set of
partners ; Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Street, Colonel Jer-
voise, James Digweed, J. Lyford and Mr. Briggs,
a friend of the latter. I had a very pleasant
evening, however, though you will probably find
57
Jane Austen
out that there was no particular reason for it ; but
I do not think it worth while to wait for enjoy-
ment until there is some real opportunity for it." #
Balls in the days of Miss Austen consisted
mainly of country dances, for the stately minuet
was going out of vogue, while the rapid waltz had
not yet come in. We must picture to ourselves
the ladies and gentlemen ranged in two long rows
facing one another, whilst the couples at the
extreme ends danced down the set ; the most
important lady present having been privileged to
" call " or lead off the dance. We remember how
Emma Woodhouse had to give way, on such an
occasion, to the right of Mrs. Elton, as a bride, to
lead.
Jane excelled greatly in the dance, and she
shared her own Elizabeth Bennet's dislike of an
incompetent partner. In one of her letters she
speaks of sitting down during two dances in
preference to having to stand up with a gentleman
" who danced too ill to be endured." Was he, we
wonder, like Mr. Collins, " awkward and solemn,
apologising instead of attending, and often moving
wrong without being aware of it ? "
A good partner for a country dance was a
matter of consequence as the engagement, im-
plying, as it did, two dances, occupied a large part
of the evening. We remember Henry Tilney's
■'• " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
58
The County Ball-room
playful remarks on the subject to Catherine Mor-
land when their intercourse had been interrupted
for a few minutes by the irrepressible John Thorpe.
" He has no business to withdraw the attention of
my partner from me. We have entered into a
contract of mutual agreeableness for the space of
an evening, and all our agreeableness belongs
solely to each other for that time. I consider a
country dance as an emblem of marriage. Fidelity
and complaisance are the principal duties of both ;
and those men who do not choose to dance or
marry themselves, have no business with the
partners or wives of their neighbours."
When the dance was over we may fancy the
company repairing to the large front parlour of
the "Angel" for supper. They would traverse
the long passage, already mentioned, to do so.
Did it, we wonder, suggest to our authoress, the
long passage at the "Crown," when, "supper
being announced, the move began ; and Miss
Bates might be heard from that moment without
interruption, till her being seated at table and
taking up her spoon. ' Jane, Jane, my dear Jane
where are you? Here is your tippet, Mrs.
Weston begs you to put on your tippet She says
she is afraid there will be draughts in the passage,
though everything has been done — one door
nailed up — quantities of matting — my dear Jane,
indeed you must. Mr. Churchill oh ! you are too
59
Jane Austen
obliging ! How well you put it on ! — so gratified !
. . . Upon my word, Jane on one arm, and me
on the other. . . . Well here we are at the passage.
Two steps, Jane, take care of the two steps. Oh !
no, there is but one. Well I was persuaded there
were two. How very odd! I was convinced
there were two, and there is but one. I never
saw anything equal to the comfort and style —
candles everywhere.'"
We can fancy the lively scene at supper with
its accompaniment of "toasts" patriotic and
private and the proposal of sentiments, in accord-
ance with the custom of the day. Perhaps one of
these last might take the form of words used, to
the present writer's knowledge, on a similar
occasion : " May courtship be ever in fashion and
kissing the pink of the mode. v
And now the time having arrived for the com-
pany to disperse we may think of them driving
along the moonlit highways or narrow lanes of
the neighbourhood on their various homeward
journeys. Let us follow the coach that bears
Miss Jane Austen and Miss Catherine Bigg to
Manydown Park. We think we see them turn
from the main western road to climb the long
grassy slopes of the open park, and then, passing
beneath an avenue of gnarled oaks, come out in
full view of the fine old mansion of Manydown,
with its great sweeping cedar beside it ; perhaps,
60
The County Ball-room
at that time, all sparkling with frost or a light fall
of snow. Leaving this wintry scene, the two girls
enter the hall, cheerful with lights, and ascending
the broad staircase with its balustrade of delicate
ironwork, are welcomed by the master of the
house who has sat up to receive them in the long
drawing-room whose three windows, at the further
end, form a large bay. Perhaps, as they recount
the events of the ball, standing round a blazing
fire beneath its carved marble chimney-piece, Jane
may be imagined to exclaim with one of her own
heroines, " How soon it is at an end ! I wish it
could all come over again ! "
CHAPTER VII
FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS
"... music, mirth, and social cheer
Speed on their wings the passing year '."
Among her partners at the Assembly balls Jane
Austen mentions, as we have seen, Stephen
Terry, T. Chute, James Digweed, John Harwood
and J. Lyford.
Stephen Terry belonged to the family of the
Terrys of Dummer, a quaint little village lying-
near to Popham Lane and within reach of Steven-
ton. We have visited the village and seen the
squire's mansion where the Terrys lived. It is
a long white house with flat, arched windows and
a square-columned porch, standing a little back
from Dummer Lane. Hard by is the village
church, a very small edifice in comparison with
the squire's mansion. It has a low wooden tower
and a deep tiled roof. On the southern side of
the roof there projects a queer little dormer
window which gives light to a gallery that occupies
the greater part of the interior of the church.
62
Friends and Neighbours
Here, probably, the squires and their families used
to sit. This little church is associated with the
name of George Whitefield ; for, when quite a
young man, he was given the curacy of Dummer.
He suffered, at first, from the solitude and silence
of the tiny village, and remarks, in a letter, that
he " mourned like a dove" for his Oxford friends.
J. Lyford was a grandson of old Dr. Lyford,
the chief medical man of Basingstoke. Mr.
Austen- Leigh writes of the latter : " I remember
him a fine old man, with such a flaxen wig as is
not to be seen, or conceived, by this generation.
This wig he used to ' dispart with biennially ' (as
Sir Walter Scott expresses it) and to bestow the
reversion of it every second year on an old man
in our parish (of Steventon) as tall and fine-
looking as himself, producing thereby a ludicrous
resemblance between the peasant and the
doctor." *
T. Chute belonged to the family of Mr.
William Chute who was a prominent figure in the
Hampshire society of Miss Austen's day. He
was M.P. for the county in the Tory interest, was
the owner of the " Vine," and at the head of the
Vine Hunt. Mr. Chute seems to have had a
singularly amiable, original and humorous disposi-
tion. Mr. Austen-Leigh, writing of his boyish
* See "The Vine Hunt," by J. E. Austen-Leigh. (Printed for
private circulation.)
63
Jane Austen
recollections of him, says : " He had a fair round
face with a most agreeable countenance expressive
of good humour and intelligence. ... I can fancy-
that I see him, trotting up to the meet at Freefolk
Wood, or St. John's, sitting rather loose on his
horse, and his clothes rather loose upon him — the
scarlet coat flapping open, a little whitened at
the collar by the contact of his hair powder and
the friction of his pigtail ; the frill of his shirt
above, and his gold watch-chain and seal below,
both rather prominent, the short knee-breeches
scarcely meeting the boot-tops. See ! he rides
up ; probably with some original amusing re-
mark, at any rate with a cheerful greeting to his
friends, a nod and kindly word to the farmers,
and some laughing notice of the schoolboy on his
pony.
" Or I could give quite another picture of him
in his parish church — standing upright, tilting his
heavy folio prayer-book on the edge Df his high
pew so that he had to look up rather than down
on it. There he stands, like Sir Roger de
Coverley, giving out the responses in an audible
tone, with an occasional glance to see what tenants
were at church, and what school children were
misbehaving ; and, sometimes, when the rustic
psalmody began its discord in the gallery, with a
humour, which even church could not restrain,
making some significant gesture to provoke, a
64
Friends and Neighbours
smile from me and the other young persons in
the pew."
The same writer gives us some of Mr. Chute's
repartees. " Sir John Cope, who professed Radical
politics, once wrote to him that he had a litter of
five dogs in that year's entry, whose names had
all pretty much the same meaning, for they
were Placeman, Parson, Pensioner, Pilferer, and
Plunderer. But the Tory squire, with ready in-
vention, retorted that he would show him a litter
of which the five names were equally synony-
mous, being Radical, Rebel, Regicide, Ruffian
and Rascal."*
Miss Jane Austen has mentioned "the Portals"
as being present at one of the Assembly balls.
There were two brothers of that name, Mr.
William Portal of Laverstoke House, and Mr.
John Portal of Freefolk Priory — both owning
large landed property. They belonged to a
French Protestant family (originally Portalis),
who had fled from France during the persecu-
tions under Louis XIV. It is said that Henri,
the ancestor of the Hampshire Portals, who was
a child at the time, escaped to Holland concealed
in a cask. He eventually came over to England
and established the paper-mill at Laverstoke with
French and Dutch Protestant workmen. His
firm have had the privilege of manufacturing the
* " The Vine Hunt."
65 E
Jane Austen
bank notes for the Bank of England ever since
the Bank's foundation, and they continue to do so
at the present day.
We have visited Laverstoke Park, which lies
on undulating ground between Overton and Whit-
church. Its magnificent trees have been planted
by many generations of Portals. The little river
Test runs through the park, a clear and rapid
trout stream.
Mr. John Harwood was one of the Harwoods
of Deane, " an old family with some racy peculi-
arities of character. It has been supposed that
Fielding took the idea of his Squire Western
from the John Harwood of his day ; and as
Fielding used to visit at Oakley Hall it is not
improbable that some features of his immortal
Tory Squire might have been copied from this
original." #
The old Manor House of Deane, the home of
the Harwoods, has already been spoken of. It is
built of dark red brick and has white window
frames and a white porch. Deane Lane divides
its beautiful grounds from those of the old rectory,
which formerly stood at a little distance behind a
thatched mud wall. The mud wall is still standing
and behind it lies a sunny fruit and flower garden,
but the old rectory, the home for seven years of
Mr. and Mrs. George Austen, has long since
* "The Vine Hunt."
66
Friends and Neighbours
disappeared. At the time we are writing of, it
was inhabited by Jane Austen's eldest brother
James and his family.
Early in January 1796, a ball was given at
Deane House, which Jane describes in a letter to
her sister. We have seen the room where the
dancing must have taken place. Its walls are
^
i&.*r '
DEANE HOUSE
panelled and painted white and it has a grand
Jacobean chimney-piece which reaches to the
ceiling. The floor is of polished wood. Two
windows, deeply recessed in the thickness of the
wall, look out on to the park with its waving
trees.
At the " Harwood's ball " Jane was some-
what in the position of her own Catherine
Morland at the Cotillion ball in Bath, desirous
67
Jane Austen
to escape from one gentleman and to be free
to dance with another. "To my inexpressible
astonishment," she writes, " I entirely escaped
THE PANELLED ROOM IN DEANE HOUSE
John Lyford. I was forced to fight hard for it,
however." Was John Lyford, we wonder, borne i
away from Jane, as his namesake was borne away j)
from Catherine, "by the resistless pressure of a
long string of passing ladies " ?
68
:
Friends and Neighbours
The attractive gentleman on this occasion was a
Mr. Tom Lefroy, a nephew of the Rector of
Ashe.
" I am almost afraid to tell you," Jane con-
tinues, "how my Irish friend and I behaved.
Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and
shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down
together. I can expose myself, however, only
once more because he leaves the country soon after
next Friday, on which day we are to have a dance
at Ashe. He is a very gentlemanlike, good-look-
ing, pleasant young man I assure you. But as to
our having ever met, except at the three last balls,
I cannot say much ; for he is so excessively
laughed at about me at Ashe that he is ashamed
of coming to Steventon." But Jane winds up her
letter by saying : "After I had written the above
we received a visit from Mr. Tom Lefroy and
his cousin George. The latter is really very well
behaved now ; and as for the other, he has but one
fault, which time will, I trust, entirely remove —
it is that his morning- coat is a great deal too
light. He is a very great admirer of Tom Jones,
and therefore wears the same coloured clothes, I
imagine, which he did, when he was wounded."
Writing a few days later she remarks: "Our
party at Ashe to-morrow night will consist of
Edward Cooper, James (for a ball is nothing
without him), Buller, who is now staying with us,
6 9
jane Austeri
and I. I look forward with great impatience to
it, as I rather expect to receive an offer from my
friend in the course of the evening. I shall
refuse him, however, unless he promises to give
away his white coat." On the day of the ball she
writes : "At length the day has come on which I
am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, and when
you receive this it will be over. My tears flow as
I write at the melancholy idea." #
Now where was the ball-room in which Mr. Tom
Lefroy and Miss Jane Austen talked and laughed
and danced together that last time ? " Ashe," in
Jane's letters, means either Ashe Park (then occu-
pied by the St. John family) or Ashe Rectory ;
but more frequently it means the latter, for there
was much intercourse between the Austens and
the Lefroys, and this ball was evidently given
by Mr. Tom Lefroy 's uncle, the Rev. Isaac
Lefroy, as a farewell festivity to the nephew
previous to his departure for Ireland.
We must ask the reader to accompany us
in a pilgrimage to Ashe to see, if possible, this
same ball-room. Crossing ,the fields that lie
between Deane and Ashe, we enter the narrow
lane where the small church stands, and by the
kindness of the present rector, gain admission to
his house, much of which remains as it was in
the days of the Lefroys.
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
Friends and Neighbours
Here, in the older part, is the morning-roorri,
which has two casement windows opening on to
gay flower-beds and a green lawn, flanked on
the side of the lane by a great yew hedge that is
nearly as tall as the house itself. In this room
v.* .*
%w /
ASHE RECTORY
there are folding doors which open into a large
dining-room, which was formerly the drawing-
room. " Those doors," remarks the Rector,
"were thrown open when the Rev. Isaac
Lefroy gave dances here a hundred years ago."
So we are actually standing on the very spot
Jane Austen
where the ball took place, and can picture to
ourselves the whole scene! There the country
dance must have been formed, and there down the
centre must Jane and her partner have crossed
hands to the couple at the lower end ! The plea-
sant echoes of their merry talk seem hardly to
have died away, though the authors of it have so
long since vanished.
We hear no more of Mr. Tom Lefroy in the
letters, for he and Jane never met again. He
became, in after years, Lord Chief Justice of
Ireland, and survived Jane by more than half a
century, but "even in extreme old age" we are
told " he would speak of his former companion as
one to be much admired and not easily forgotten
by those who had ever known her." #
Many a happy hour must Miss Jane Austen
have passed in this house ; for the rector's wife,
though considerably older than herself, was her
intimate friend. "Mrs. Lefroy," we are told, "was
a remarkable person. Her rare endowments of
goodness, talents, graceful person and engaging
manners were sufficient to secure her a prominent
place in any society into which she was thrown,
while her enthusiastic eagerness of disposition
rendered her especially attractive to a clever and
lively girl."f " She was," writes her brother, Sir
Egerton Brydges, " one of the most amiable and
* " Memoir," by J. E. Austen-Leigh. f Ibid.
72
Friends and Neighbours
eloquent women I ever knew, and was universally
beloved and admired." Even the villagers f
Ashe felt the influence of her rare qualities as dis-
tinguishing her from other people, and always
called her " Madame Lefroy." To Jane such a
friend must have been invaluable, but alas ! she
had the grief of losing her early in 1804, when
Mrs. Lefroy was killed by a fall from her horse.
The exact spot where the accident took place has
been pointed out to us. It is where the narrow
lane from Polehampton crosses the Overton Road.
Jane wrote some verses in memory of her friend
which are given in the " Memoir." They testify
the deepest love and admiration and prove how
keenly Jane mourned her loss.
We find mention of much friendly visiting
among the various neighbours in the " Letters."
"On Thursday we walked to Deane," Jane writes
in October 1800 ; " yesterday to Oakley Hall and
Oakley, and to-day to Deane again. At Oakley
we did a great deal — ate some sandwiches all
over mustard, admired Mr. Bramston's porter, and
Mrs. Bramston's transparencies, and gained a
promise from the latter of two roots of heartsease,
one all yellow, the other all purple, for you." A
month later she writes : "We had a very pleasant
day on Monday at Ashe (Park). We sat down
fourteen to dinner in the study, the dining-room
being not habitable from the storms having blown
73
jane Austen
down its chimney. There was a whist and a
casino table, and six outsiders. Rice and Lucy-
made love, Mat. Robinson fell asleep, James and
Mrs. Augusta alternately read Dr. Finnis' pamphlet
on the cow-pox, and I bestowed my company, by
turns, on all." #
Does not this remind us of some of the evenings
at Netherfield, when Elizabeth standing by watched
the others playing at cards ; or when Miss Bing-
ley "having obtained private intelligence that Mr.
Darcy did not wish for cards," refused Mr. Hurst's
petition for them, so that that gentleman had
nothing to do but to stretch himself on one of the
sofas and go to sleep ; whilst Bingley, in the
meantime, lavished his attentions upon Jane
Bennet and " talked scarcely to any one else " ?
In another letter to Cassandra, Jane remarks
playfully : " Your unfortunate sister was betrayed
last Thursday into a situation of the utmost
cruelty. I arrived at Ashe Park before the party
from Deane and was shut up in the drawing-room
with Mr. Holder alone for ten minutes. I had
some thoughts of insisting on the housekeeper
being sent for, and nothing could prevail on me t(
move two steps from the door, on the lock of
which I kept one hand constantly fixed. We met
nobody but ourselves, played at vingt-un again,
and were very cross. . . .
:;: " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
74
Friends and Neighbours
" You express so little anxiety about my being
murdered under Ashe Copse by Mrs. Hulbert's
servant, that I have a great mind not to tell you
whether I was or not, and shall only say that I did
not return home that night or the next. . . . On
Friday I wound up my four days of dissipation by
meeting William Digweed at Deane, and am
pretty well, I thank you, after it."
We hear, in one of the letters, of a ball to be
given by Lady Dorchester at Kempshott House,
on January 8, 1799. Lord Dorchester, the hus-
band of this lady, was a military officer of great
courage and skill, " who had distinguished himself
in the American war," as Sir Guy Carleton. On
the conclusion of the war he had been made
Governor-General of Quebec, New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia, and had been raised to the peerage.
At the time of the projected ball Miss Jane
Austen was expecting her youngest brother at
Steventon for a flying visit. She writes to her
sister on the morning of January 8 : " Charles is
not come yet, but he must come this morning or
he shall never know what I will do to him. The
ball at Kempshott is this evening and I have got
him an invitation. ... I am not to wear my
white satin cap to-night, after all ; I am to wear a
mamalouc cap instead which Charles Fowle sent
to Mary # and which she lends me. It is all the
* Mrs. James Austen.
75
Jane Aiisteri
fashion now; worn at the opera and by Lady
Mildmays at Hackwood balls. I hate describing
such things and I daresay you will be able to
guess what it is like."
The word Mamalouc is given as Mamalone in
Lord Brabourne's " Letters of Jane Austen,"
which is evidently a clerical error ; the letters uc
in the MS. having been mistaken for ne. The
battle of the Nile, fought in the preceding August,
had set the fashion in ladies' dress for everything
suggestive of Egypt and of the hero of Aboukir.
In the fashion-plates of the day we find Mamalouc
cloaks and Mamalouc robes of flowing red cloth.
Ladies wear toupees, somewhat resembling a fez,
which we recognise as the " Mamalouc cap."
Their hats are adorned with the " Nelson rose
feather," and their dainty feet encased in "green
morocco slippers bound with yellow and laced
with crocodile-coloured ribbon."
Kempshott House lies between Dummer and
Popham Lane. Would the owners, we wondered,
permit us to see the room in which the ball took
place? Inspired by this idea, and by the daring
of explorers, we entered Kempshott Park and
drove up the long, gentle ascent that leads to the
house.
We found it to be a stone classical structure
such as Miss Austen describes as "a modern
residence." It has a large bowed centre, three
76
Friends and Neighbours
windows wide, supported by a colonnade of pillars.
To our petition for admittance came a friendly
rejoinder from the lady of the house, who was
soon herself conducting us from room to room,
explaining the various alterations effected in later
years, and pointing out the parts that are still
unchanged. The present drawing-room, it seems,
forms a part of the former ball-room.
The house stands on the slope of a hill, and is
so built that there is one storey less at the back
than at the front. In former times the main
entrance was at the back, and there the carriages
must have set down the gay company for the
ball.
Lord Dorchester took over Kempshott House,
in the year 1 796, from George, Prince of Wales,
who had used it as a hunting residence. At the
time of the French Revolution, a large number of
tmigrds of high rank were entertained at Kemp-
shott. On one occasion a grand stag-hunt was
got up for their amusement, at which about five
hundred horsemen were present. The foreigners
were equipped, according to the French mode,
with long twisted horns over their shoulders, and
their grotesque appearance, it is said, much
astounded the Hampshire farmers.*
We hear no particulars of the Kempshott ball,
for Jane, writing to her sister on the following
* See " Sporting Reminiscences," by ^sop.
77
Jane Austen
day, complains of a temporary weakness in one of
her eyes which makes writing troublesome, add-
ing : " My mother has undertaken to do it for me,
and I shall leave the Kempshott ball for her."
Many of Mrs. Austen's letters have been pre-
served, but unluckily this particular one seems to
have been lost.
78
CHAPTER VIII
SCENES OF EARLY WRITINGS
"... Friends
Atturid to happy unison of soul"
There are some old copy-books in the possession
of the Austen family, containing the first efforts at
story-making of the future novelist — then a girl
between fourteen and sixteen years of age. These
tales are chiefly burlesques, related in mock heroic
language, to ridicule the impossible events and
highflown sentiments she had met with in various
silly romances. The youthful author seems as if
she were studying how not to write before striking
out any path for herself. She manifests her judg-
ment of the "silly romances," "not by direct
censure but by the indirect method of imitating
and exaggerating the faults of her models, thus
clearing the fountain by first stirring up the
mud." #
The present writer has read one of these early
tales. Its fun is so spontaneous and so irresistibly
* Article upon her works by Lord Acton.
79
Jane Austen
comic that, whilst reading it, one seems almost to
hear the merry laugh of the young girl over her
own performance.
This style of gentle burlesque never lost its
attraction for Miss Austen. We meet with it in
many a page of her correspondence as well as in
the novels. In " Northanger Abbey" she tells us
that Catherine Morland had actually "reached
the age of seventeen without having seen one
amiable youth who could call forth her sensibility.
. . . This was strange indeed. But . . . there
was not one lord in the neighbourhood ; no, not
even a baronet. There was not one family among
their acquaintance who had reared and supported
a boy accidentally found at their door ; not one
young man whose origin was unknown."
In one of her letters she writes : " Mr. C's
opinion is gone down in my list. I will redeem
my credit with him by writing a close imitation of
' Self Control ' as soon as I can. I will improve
upon it. My heroine shall not only be wafted
down an American river in a boat by herself.
She shall cross the Atlantic in the same way, and
never stop till she reaches Gravesend." How
Jane must have enjoyed drawing up her "plan of
a novel according to hints from various quarters,"
in which the heroine is hurried from one country
of Europe to another, always pursued by totally
unprincipled young men, and, passing through
80
Scenes of Early Writings
the most terrible adventures, is " worn down
to a skeleton and now and then starved to
death ! " *
Among her early effusions is an amusing little
play entitled " The Mystery, an Unfinished
Comedy," which is printed in the second edition
of the "Memoir." The Austens, as a family,
were fond of acting, and many a play, we are
told, was performed by the young people at
Steventon. They acted during the winter months
in the " common sitting-room " where, for lack of
space, the audience must have been a very small
one. But in summer time the theatre was trans-
ferred to a large barn on the further side of
Steventon Lane. An old inhabitant, who re-
members it, has shown us the flattened mound
where it stood.
A leading member of the little acting company
was a young Madame de Feuillade, who was a
first cousin of Jane's, being a daughter of the
Rev. George Austen's only sister, Mrs. Hancock.
Her husband, a French Count, perished- by the
guillotine during the Reign of Terror. She
escaped to England and was received into her
uncle's house, where she continued to reside for
some years, her parents being in India. Eventually
she married Henry Austen.
Madame de Feuillade was a clever woman, and
* See second edition of the " Memoir."
81 F
\
Jane Austen
highly accomplished after the French rather than
the English mode. She took the chief parts in
the plays, and her influence must have been an
inspiring one. The prologues and epilogues were
written by James Austen, and we are told that
they were very amusing. How much we should
have liked to take a peep into the great barn on a
summer evening, more than a hundred years ago,
and seen the group of bright young actors !
There is a charming portrait — a miniature — of
Madame de Feuillade taken before her marriage
when she was about sixteen years of age. We
have seen this portrait. The features are small
and delicate and the dark eyes have a piquant
expression. She wears a low white dress, edged
with blue ribbon and a band of the same ribbon
is in her hair, which is powdered and dressed
high.
Jane Austen enjoyed some unusual privileges
in the quiet country parsonage at Steventon. We
are told that her " father was so good a scholar
that he could himself prepare his sons for the
University." "Her mother was a well educated
woman and a thorough lady, though she sat
darning the family stockings in a parlour into
which the front door opened. She loved all
country things, and had a vigorous nature and
a contented mind that kept her young and
cheerful in spirit until extreme old age. She was
82
X-
^
Scenes of Early Writings
an excellent letter writer." * In her " was to be
found the germ of that ability which was concen-
trated in Jane but of which almost all her children
had a share."
" The home conversation was rich in shrewd
remarks, bright with playfulness and humour and
occasional flashes of wit." "It was never troubled
by disagreements, even in little matters, for it was
not the habit of the Austen family to dispute or
argue with each other." "Bad grammar Jane
never heard," nor " slang, for there was no slang
in those days."
Thus circumstanced it is no wonder that even
her earliest compositions, however trivial their
subject may be, "are characterised by their pure
and simple English," and that we see the influence
of her happy home in the " unconscious charm of
the domestic atmosphere of her stories and the
delicate sub-satirical humour which pervades
them."
To hear no slang nor bad grammar was indeed
an advantage such as no young writer of the
present day can command.
Jane, from early childhood, delighted in reading.
She was well acquainted with the old periodicals
from the Spectator downwards, and her know-
ledge of Richardson's works was the intimate
knowledge of an ardent admirer. " Every cir-
:;: Family MSS.
8.1
Jane Austen
cumstance narrated in ' Sir Charles Grandison ',
all that was ever said or done in the cedar
parlour was familiar to her ; and the wedding
days of Lady L. and Lady B. were as well re-
membered as if they had been living friends." #
In the " Life " of Lord Macaulay we read that he
and his sister adopted Miss Austen's own charac-
ters, in a similar way, as living friends and
acquaintances. When speaking to each other
they frequently employed sentences from her
dialogues " to express the idea, or even the
business of the moment ; using the very language
of Mrs. Elton, and Mrs. Bennet, Mr. Woodhouse,
Mr. Collins and John Thorpe, and the other
inimitable actors on Jane Austen's unpretending
stage." When Macaulay's sister married, her
husband " used, at first, to wonder who the extra-
ordinary people could be with whom his wife and
his brother-in-law appeared to have lived ! "
On the upper floor of the parsonage there
was a small parlour called the "dressing-room,"
already alluded to, where Jane used to write her
tales. This room belonged exclusively to the
two sisters. Here they followed their favourite
pursuits — Cassandra had her drawing materials,
and Jane her desk and her piano. A piano, we
must remember, was a rare addition in those days
to the furniture of a modest country parsonage ;
* " Memoir," by J. E. Austen-Leigh.
84
Scenes of Early Writings
but there was a genuine love of music in the
Steventon household and the piano had been
procured. Jane Austen has often ridiculed the
affected love of music, but never its real appre-
ciation. We remember how, when Marianne
Dashwood had been asked to sino- at Barton
Park, " Sir John was loud in his admiration at
the end of every song, and as loud in his conver-
sation with the others while every song lasted.
Lady Middleton frequently called him to order,
wondered how any one's attention could be
diverted from music for a moment, and then
asked Marianne to sing a particular song which
Marianne had just finished."
We have held in our hands some music books,
carefully preserved in the family, that belonged to
Miss Austen. One of them, which is half-bound
with mottled paper sides, contains "twelve can-
zonettes for two voices, by William Jackson, of
Exeter," followed by a collection of "Scots songs."
On the fly-leaf is written " Jane Austen " in her
own small delicate writing. There is a manu-
script book in which the music is beautifully and
very clearly written, believed to be the work of
her hand. It is bound in parchment and bears
her name within the cover. It contains, among
other pieces, the song entitled " Ask if the damask
rose be sweet," from "Susannah, an oratorio by
Mr. Handell," and also a minuet by the same
8«;
Jane Austen
composer. Jane, we know, had a sweet singing
voice. Did she sing the duets by Jackson, we
wonder, with her sister Cassandra ?
We call to mind the description of the sisters'
" dressing-room " by their eldest niece Anna (after-
wards Mrs. Benjamin Lefroy), who visited the
parsonage so often as a young child and who
wrote: "about the carpet with its chocolate
ground, and the painted press with shelves above
for books," and mentioned Jane's "piano, and an
oval glass that hung between the windows."
" Though this child's age," writes her daughter,
" was not more than four or five, she could re-
member hearing ' Pride and Prejudice ' read aloud
by its youthful writer to her sister. She was a
very intelligent, quick-witted child, and she caught
up the names of the characters and talked about
them so much downstairs that her aunts feared
she would provoke inquiry, for the story was still
a secret from the elders." * The title then in-
tended for the novel was " First Impressions."
It was begun in October 1796, when Jane Austen
was not yet twenty-one years of age.
In that same year Jane paid a visit to her
brother Edward and his wife, who were then
living at Rowling, a small place in East Kent,
about a mile distant from Goodnestone, the seat
of the Bridges family, to which Mrs. Edward
* Family MSS.
86
EDWARD AUSTEN (AFTERWARDS KNIGHT) FROM THE
PORTRAIT AT CHAWTON HOUSE.
Scenes of Early Writings
Austen belonged. Jane travelled with her two
brothers, Edward and Francis. The journey
from Steventon to Rowling was a serious affair
in those days, and we find the party stopping
twice on the road — first at Staines and then in
London, at some hotel in Cork Street. In
driving across Kent they would go by way of
Sevenoaks, Maidstone and Canterbury, and, be-
fore reaching Sevenoaks, would necessarily pass
through the village of Westerham.
Who does not remember that Mr. Collins's
pompous letter in which he proposes " to heal the
breach" between his family and that of Mr.
Bennet, was dated from " HunsforJ, near Wester-
ham, Kent " ? As Jane was hurried along in her
post-chaise did her eyes, we wonder, happen to
fall upon some neat dwelling with "a garden
sloping to the road " divided by "a short gravel
walk " and bounded by " green pales and a laurel
hedge " which she fixed upon afterwards for Mr.
Collins's "humble abode"? And did Good-
nestone, or some other fine property, suggest the
future " Rosings," the residence of the dignified
Lady Catherine de Bourgh ?
" Pride and Prejudice " was finished in August
1797 5 so that it was written in only ten months !
There is a letter given in the " Memoir " from Jane
Austen's father to Mr. Cadell, the publisher, dated
November 1797, in which he describes the work
87
Jane Austen
as a " manuscript novel comprising three volumes,
about the length of Miss Burney's 'Evelina"
and asks Mr. Cadell if he would like to see
the work with a view to entering into some
arrangement for its publication, " either at the
author's risk or otherwise." This proposal was
declined by return of post and so Elizabeth and
Darcy, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Collins and Lady
Catherine all remained hidden from view, nor
was it till fifteen years later that they stepped
on to the public stage !
" Sense and Sensibility " was begun in its
present form in November 1797 and finished
within a year, but "something similar in story and
character had been written earlier, under the title
of " Elinor and Marianne " and much of this
earlier tale is believed to have been incorporated
in the new story, so that " Sense and Sensibility "
really contains the earliest writing of Jane Austen's
that was given to the public. " Northanger
Abbey" was composed in 1798. But the manu-
scripts of both these novels remained like " Pride
and Prejudice" hidden out of sight for many years
and the genius possessed by their author was
known only to her own family and intimate friends.
Hence it is that Jane continued to live her quiet,
uneventful life, uncourted by the public. Her
powers in the meanwhile developed each year,
and when, at last, the time arrived for publication
Scenes of Early Writings
she was able to revise and improve the novels so
as to satisfy her maturer judgment.
In Jane Austen, the author and the critic were
curiously united, and it has been said of her by a
shrewd reviewer that she "always brings the bull's
eye of her bright common sense " to bear on all
the actions of her various characters. These
words recall the remark of a well-known contem-
porary respecting the author of " Waverley." "In
my opinion," he said, "Walter Scott's sense is a
still more wonderful thing than his genius."
Writing of a contemporary work in 1798, Miss
Austen says "We have got ' Fitz-Albini.' My
father is disappointed — I am not, for I expected
nothing better. Never did any book carry more
internal evidence of its author. Every sentiment
is completely Egerton's. There is very little story,
and what there is, is told in a strange unconnected
way. There are many characters introduced,
apparently merely to be delineated." *
In the following letter she makes fun of dry
historical works. She is writing to her friend
Miss Lloyd, a sister of the second Mrs. James
Austen, whom she is about to visit. " You dis-
tress me cruelly by your request about books. I
cannot think of any to bring with me, nor have I
any idea of our wanting them. I come to you to
be talked to, not to read or hear reading; I can do
:;: " Letters," Lord Brabouine.
89
Jane Austen
that at home ; and indeed I am now laying in a
stock of intelligence to pour out on you as my
share of the conversation. I am reading Henry's
1 History of England' which I will repeat to you
in any manner you may prefer, either in a loose,
desultory, unconnected stream, or, dividing my
recital as the historian divides it himself, into seven
parts : The Civil and Military ; Religion ; Con-
stitution ; Learning and Learned Men ; Arts and
Sciences ; Commerce, Coins and Shipping ; and
Manners. So that for every evening in the week
there will be a different subject. The Friday's
lot — Commerce, Coins and Shipping — you will
find the least entertaining, but the next evening's
portion will make amends. With such a provision
on my part, if you will do yours by repeating the
French grammar, and Mrs. Stent will now and
then ejaculate some wonder about the cocks and
hens, what can we want ? " *
Mrs. Stent, we presume, was somewhat like
Mrs. Allen, whose " vacancy of mind and incapa-
city for thinking were such that, as she never
talked a great deal, so she could never be entirely
silent ; and therefore, while she sat at work, if
she lost her needle or broke her thread, or saw a
speck of dirt on her gown, she must observe it,
whether there were any one at leisure to answer
her or not."
:|: " Memoir."
9Q
CHAPTER IX
LEAVING STEVENTON
" Still to ourselves in every place consigned,
Our own felecity we make or find?
Towards the end of the year 1800 the Rev.
George Austen decided to hand over the care of
the Steventon living to his son James, and to
retire with his family to Bath. This resolution
seems to have been taken partly on account of his
own health and partly on account of that of his
wife. It caused much sorrow to his daughters,
who were warmly attached to their home.
" Coming in one day from a walk, as they entered
the room their mother greeted them with the
intelligence, ' Well, girls, it is all settled. We have
decided to leave Steventon and to go to Bath.'
To Jane, who had been from home and who
had not heard much before about the matter,
it was such a shock that she fainted away.
. . . She loved the country, and her delight
in natural scenery was such that she would
91
Jane Austen
sometimes say it must form one of the delights of
heaven. " #
But Jane's ready conformableness to the wishes
of others, together with her true philosophy, which
made her dwell upon the good rather than the
evil of life, enabled her to face the new scheme
bravely, and we soon find her busy with all the
multifarious preparations for the great move.
Before following the family to Bath, we must
allude to a bereavement which befell them in the
sudden death of a gentleman to whom Cassandra
was engaged to be married. A member of the
Austen family has left, in manuscript, the following
account of the circumstances.
"Among the pupils at Steventon was a certain
Thomas Craven Fowle. . . . Between him and
Cassandra Austen an attachment grew up which
ended in an engagement. He must have been
several years her senior, as he was a pupil at
Steventon as early as 1779, when she was only
six years old. . . . Thomas Fowle took Holy
Orders, and as his friend and cousin Lord Craven
was the patron of several livings early preferment
was hoped for. Thomas Fowle went out to the
West Indies with Lord Craven as chaplain to his
regiment, and there died from the effects of the
climate. I suppose his cousin had obtained the
chaplaincy for him, for he said afterwards, in
* Family MSS.
9 2
Leaving Steventon
speaking of his death, that if he had known of
the engagement he would not have allowed him
to run such a risk. I cannot find the date of
Thomas Fowle's decease, nor learn how many
years the engagement had lasted when it came
to so unhappy an end. With it, so far as we
know, ended the romance of Aunt Cassandra's
life."
Rytorn in Shropshire is mentioned as the
living probably intended for Mr. Fowle. There
is an allusion in one of Mrs. Austen's letters,
written in 1796, to Cassandra's staying in Shrop-
shire, and its seeming likely that she will soon be
settled there permanently ; and Jane, in writing to
her sister on one occasion, remarks that a friend of
theirs supposes her to be busy making her wedding
clothes. Had not many of Jane's letters been
destroyed after her death we should doubtless
have found references to this "domestic tragedy."
Her tender sympathy with her beloved sister,
however, can easily be imagined.
Jane took an active part in all the business relat-
ing to the removal from Steventon. Among other
matters the faithful John Bond had to be provided
with a good place. She writes to her sister, then
at Godmersham, of her satisfaction when this had
been accomplished. There were also many fare-
well visits to pay upon friends both rich and poor.
The frequent mention in the " Letters " of their
93
Jane Austen
poorer neighbours shows how much they were
cared for by Cassandra and Jane,
Mrs. Austen's only brother, Mr. Leigh- Perrot,
and his wife, used to spend a large part of every
year at Bath. This brother had assumed the
name of Perrot upon inheriting a small estate at
Northleigh in Oxfordshire. The Leigh-Perrots'
house was in Paragon, and there Mrs. Austen and
Jane were invited to stay upon their arrival in
Bath, it having been arranged that these two
should precede the others, as Mr. Austen had
business to detain him in Hampshire, and Cas-
sandra was at that time visiting her brother
Edward in Kent.
On the 4th of May, 1801, the move was made.
We can fancy Mrs. Austen and Jane in their post-
chaise, taking a last glance at the parsonage, amidst
its cowslip-decked meadows and its tall branching
elms and sycamores, and then driving through
the village and along the familiar lanes till, by
the " Deane Gate," they entered the great western
road which was to lead them far from their
country life to Bath and the " busy hum of
men."
94
CHAPTER X
BATH
" The elegant city without a parallel in the Kingdom."
Miss Austen writes upon their arrival in Bath :
" Our journey here was perfectly free from acci-
dent or event ; we changed horses at the end of
every stage, and paid at almost every turnpike.
. . . Between Luggershall and Everley we made
our grand meal, and then, with admiring astonish-
ment, perceived in what a magnificent manner
our support had been provided for. We could
not, with the utmost exertion, consume above the
twentieth part of the beef.
" We had a very neat chaise from Devizes ; it
looked almost as well as a gentleman's, at least
as a very shabby gentleman's ; in spite of this
advantage, however, we were above three hours
coming from thence to Paragon, and it was half
after seven by our clocks before we entered the
house.
" Frank, whose black head was in waiting at the
95
Jane Austen
hall window, received us very kindly, and his
master and mistress did not show less cordiality.
We drank tea as soon as we arrived, and so ends
the account of our journey which my mother bore
without fatigue. ... I had not been two minutes
in the dining-room before my uncle questioned
me with all his accustomary eager interest about
Frank and Charles, their views and intentions. I
did my best to give information." *
Let us follow in the wake of this " very neat
chaise " gentle reader, alighting, as Jane did, in
Paragon.
Those who know Bath may remember that this
name is given to the eastern side of a curved
street on the slope of a steep hill, whose opposite
side, called Vineyards, is raised above the level of
the road on a high terrace walk. In Miss Austen's
day Paragon consisted of twenty-one houses only,
as those at the northern end of the row were then
called Axford Buildings. The Leigh Perrots'
house, it seems, was No. i Paragon, which is
nearly opposite a steep passage leading up to
Belmont. f At the further end of the street can
be seen the green slopes that rise abruptly to
Camden Place ; which "Place" is described by a
contemporary writer, the grandiloquent Mr. Egan,
as a "superb crescent composed of majestic
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
t See " Famous Houses of Bath etc.," by J. F. Meehan.
96
Bath
buildings." No wonder that the author of " Per-
suasion" made Sir Walter Elliot choose this locality
for his residence in Bath as being ' ' a lofty and
dignified situation, such as became a man of conse-
quence." There, " in the best house in Camden
Place," we can fancy the vain-glorious baronet and
his daughter Elizabeth rejoicing in their superiority
to their neighbours in the size of their drawing-
rooms, the taste of their furniture, and the
elegance of their card-parties.
In her first letter from Bath, Miss Austen
speaks of walking with her uncle to the Pump
Room where he had to take " his second glass
of water." On leaving Paragon they would pass
down Broad Street and High Street, and then
entering the paved court that surrounds the Abbey,
they would pass by its grand western front, flanked
by the two Jacob's ladders, with their ascending
and descending angels. "But here," to quote the
words of Mr. Egan again, "the scene from 'grave
to gay' is changed with almost the celerity of
Harlequins bat, and epitaphs and monumental
inscriptions are banished for the lively gaiety of
the Great Pump Room."
There it stands ! a dignified stone edifice ; its
four tall fluted pillars crowned with Corinthian
capitals, supporting a sculptured pediment. We
can imagine the busy scene in the courtyard,
where sedan-chairs would be carried to and fro
97 g
Jane Austen
amid a throng of gaily dressed people continually
passing in and out of the two main entrances.
When Miss Austen and her uncle had passed
in also, they would find themselves in a long,
lofty room lighted by tall windows, and having at
each end a large semi-circular arched recess, one
containing the musicians' gallery, the other a
statue of Beau Nash standing in a niche above a
tall clock. Beau Nash ! who for fifty years " was
literally the King of Bath," and of whom Gold-
smith wrote : " I have known him on a ball night
strip even the Duchess of Queensberry of her
costly lace apron, and throw it on one of the back
benches ; observing that none but abigails ap-
peared in white aprons ; and when the Princess
Amelia applied to him at 1 1 o'clock for one more
dance refuse, his laws being as he said like those
of Lycurgus — unalterable."
In the centre of the long wall, to Beau Nash's
left, a stone balustrade fronts an alcove in which
the waters, rising in a marble basin, throw up a
column of steam, and where the attendants in mob
caps and aprons, are busy filling and handing out
glasses to the company. We fancy we see " the
ever shifting throng of gaily dressed people "
pacing up and down the centre of the room, or
sitting at small tables with glasses in their hands
sipping their water, the ladies attired in soft white
muslin dresses trimmed with blue, green or pink
98
in I
^^S 1 \N^
THE PL'MP ROOM
Bath
ribbons, and wearing small sandalled shoes of the
same colour, their heads surmounted by hats of all
shapes and sizes, adorned with tall nodding
plumes or with great bunches of fruit or flowers.
Among these head-dresses the " Minerva helmet "
might be seen " trimmed with a wreath of flowers
and a bow of blue riband," which had then just
come into fashion.* The men, too, have their
share of gay attire. The elderly beaux still wear
the showy embroidered waistcoats, knee breeches,
lace ruffles and sparkling shoe buckles of the late
eighteenth century, while the younger men, con-
forming to the newer style, have adopted close-
fitting nankeen pantaloons tied above the ankle by
a piece of ribbon, and wear long- tailed blue coats
adorned with brass buttons, while their necks are
swathed in voluminous white muslin cravats.
We can imagine how Miss Austen would ob-
serve all these people, noting their talk as they
passed and repassed her ; and how, pernaps, as she
detected the airs and graces and veiled selfishness of
some, or admired the genuine simplicity of others,
she might smile at the thought of her portrait-
ure of the Thorpes, the Aliens, and the Tilneys,
and of Catherine Morland lying hidden away in
her travelling trunk. She could not glance at the
clock, to see if it were time for her uncle and
herself to return home, without remembering that
* See Heideloff's " Gallery of Fashion," 1796-1803.
Jane Austen
it was on a bench beneath that very clock that
she had placed Mrs. Thorpe and Mrs. Allen when
they recognised each other as old acquaintances,
and when "their joy on the occasion was very
great, as well it might be since they had been
contented to know nothing of each other for the
last fifteen years." There Mrs. Thorpe had
expatiated upon the beauty of her daughters and
the accomplishments of her sons. While poor
Mrs. Allen, who "had no similar triumphs to
press on the unwilling and unbelieving ear of her
friend," was "forced to sit and appear to listen to
all these maternal effusions, consoling herself,
however, with the discovery, which her keen eyes
soon made, that the lace on Mrs. Thorpe's pelisse
was not half so handsome as that on her own."
Perhaps when Miss Austen and her uncle
quitted the Pump Room they may have made
their way through the Pump Yard to the archway
opposite Union Passage, and there have had their
progress arrested, as it once befell Isabella Thorpe
and Catherine Morland, by the difficulties of cross-
ing Cheap Street at this point, thronged as it is
" by carriages, horsemen, and carts." If so, Jane
would certainly call to mind her introduction of
John Thorpe on to the scene of action, when he
appeared driving his gig along the bad pave-
ment " with all the vehemence that could most
fitly endanger the lives of himself, his companion,
Bath
and his horse." How well we all know that
"stout young man of middling height, who, with
a plain face and ungraceful form, seemed fearful of
being too handsome unless he wore the dress of a
groom," and can fancy we hear him exclaim :
" Look at my horse, Miss Morland. Did you
H
1}
)' r
.
ARCHWAY OPPOSITE UNION PASSAGE
ever see an animal so made for speed in your life ?
Such true blood. . . . See how he moves. That
horse cannot go less than ten miles an hour ; tie
his legs and he will get on." And Catherine's in-
nocent reply : " He does look very hot to be sure."
Miss Austen speaks of her and her uncle taking
their " morning circuit." Perhaps this led them
Jane AuSteH
to ascend Milsom Street — a street described ih
glowing colours by Mr. Egan, whose work on
Bath we have already quoted. " Milsom Street,"
he remarks, " is the very magnet of Bath, the
centre of attraction and, till the hour of dinner-
time, the peculiar resort of the beau monde —
where the familiar nod and the ' how do you do '
are repeated fifty times in the course of the
morning. All is bustle and gaiety," he continues,
" numerous dashing equipages passing and repass-
ing, others gracing the doors of the tradesmen ;
sprinkled here and there with the invalids in the
comfortable sedans and easy two-wheeled car-
riages. The shops are capacious and elegant.
Among them the visitors find libraries to improve
the mind, musical repositories to enrich their taste
and science, confectioners to invite the most
fastidious appetite, and tailors, milliners, &c, of
the highest eminence in the fashionable world, to
adorn the male and decorate and beautify the
female, so as to render the form almost of statuary
excellence." While another contemporary writer
observes : " The population of the principal streets
seem to consist of gay folks, shopkeepers, and
chairmen. To what can we liken the place on a
fine day ? A swarm of bees unsettled — the even-
ing flies that dance joyfully in the beams of the
setting sun. Almost every individual in the
numerous groups you meet seems bursting with
104
Bath
delight ; the streets resound with their voices.
But," he adds gravely, "when I have seen a young
lady dashing down Milsom Street, her hat turned
up before, her voice loud, her step quick and con-
fident, I own I have felt a little startled. Is there
or is there not," he asks, "any other large town
where young women indiscriminately run either
alone or in groups from one end to the other
without any servant or steady friend to accompany
them, talking and laughing at the corners of the
streets, and walking sometimes with young men
only ? "
We see by the above that it was quite in
accordance with Bath customs for the young
Thorpes and Morlands to go about together
unaccompanied by any "steady friend."
As Jane Austen passed up Milsom Street
perhaps her eye may have fallen on some hale
old admiral standing before a print-shop window
which suggested to her mind the incident, after-
wards introduced into "Persuasion." of Admiral
Croft so standing in amused contemplation of the
picture of a boat — "a shapeless old cockle shell "
— as he styled it, in which he "would not venture
across a horse-pond ! "
Milsom Street is peopled with Jane Austen's
characters. The august General Tilney, together
with his daughter Eleanor, and her "all-conquer-
ing brother" Henry, had apartments there. We
io 5
Jane Austen
fancy them settled in the centre of some imposing-
looking buildings on the eastern side of the street
which are adorned with fluted pilasters and many
a stately carving above door and window.
At the top of Milsom Street are Edgar's
Buildings, raised upon a high terrace walk and
approached by a steep flight of steps. In one of
these houses the Thorpes lodged.
Miss Mitford tells us that when she visited
Bath she lived far more in the company of Jane
Austen's characters than in that of the actual
celebrities of the place and found them "much
the more real of the two." " Her exquisite story
of ' Persuasion,'" she writes, "absolutely haunted
me. Whenever it rained, I thought of Anne
Elliot meeting Captain Wentworth, when driven
by a shower to take refuge in a shoe-shop. When-
ever I got out of breath in climbing up-hill, I
thought of that same charming Anne Elliot and
of that ascent from the lower town to the upper,
during- which all her tribulations ceased. And
when, at last, by dint of trotting up one street
and down another, I incurred the unromantic
calamity of a blister on the heel, even that
grievance became classical by the recollection
of the. similar catastrophe which, in consequence
of her peregrinations with the admiral, had be-
fallen dear Mrs. Croft."
The lively noise and bustle of the streets of
1 06
Bath
Bath were agreeable even to the quiet pleasure-
seeker like Lady Russell. She had felt the din,
made by a merry group of holiday children at
Uppercross, to be intolerable ; a din, however,
characterised by Mrs. Musgrove, as a "little quiet
cheerfulness which was doing her much good."
"But," says our authoress, " everybody has their
taste in noises as well as in other matters," and
" when Lady Russell was entering Bath, on a
wet afternoon, and driving through its streets
amidst the dash of other carriages, the heavy
rumble of carts and drays, the bawling of news-
men, muffin-men, and milkmen, and the ceaseless
clink of pattens, she made no complaint. No,
these were noises which belonged to her winter
pleasures, her spirits rose under their influence
. . . and, like Mrs. Musgrove, she was feeling,
though not saying, that nothing could be so good
for her as a little quiet cheerfulness."
1.2^>'
CHAPTER XI
BATH
" Conspicuous for the politeness of its amusements."
In Miss Austen's day there were balls or con-
certs given on each alternate evening during the
season, at the Upper and at the Lower Rooms.
The Upper Rooms, situated on the high ground
near Belmont, consist of a grand suite of apart-
ments all opening out of each other, and all upon
a level with the paved court outside. They were
so placed on account of the sedan-chairs, which
were carried right into the hall, there to set down
their fair occupants.
Miss Austen writes to her sister on May 15
(1801), "I hope you honoured my toilette and
ball with a thought (last evening). I dressed as
well as I could, and had all my finery much
admired at home. By nine o'clock my uncle, aurit
and I entered the rooms. Before tea it was rather
a dull affair, but then the before tea did not last
long, for there was only one dance, danced by four
couples. Think of four couples surrounded by
108
Bath
about a hundred people dancing in the Upper
Rooms at Bath. After tea we cheered tip ; the
breaking up of private parties sent some scores
more to the ball, and though it was shockingly
and inhumanly thin for this place, there were
people enough, I suppose, to have made five or
six very pretty Basingstoke assemblies." In May
the Bath season was just drawing to a close, so
Jane's experience was very different to that of her
heroine Catherine Morland at her first ball in these
same rooms during the height of the season. We
remember how she and Mrs. Allen slowly squeezed
their way through the throng, and how, during the
whole evening, poor Catherine could see "nothing
of the dancers, but the high feathers of some of
the ladies."
The ballroom is little changed since those days.
It is thus described by the pompous Mr. Egan :
" The elegance of the ball-room (which is a
hundred feet in length) astonishes every spectator.
The ceiling is beautifully ornamented with panels
having open compartments from which are sus-
pended five superb glass chandeliers. The walls
are painted and decorated in the most tasteful
style; and the Corinthian columns and entablature
resemble statuary marble. At each end of the room
are placed, in magnificent gilt frames, the most
splendid looking-glasses that could be procured
to give effect to the general brilliant appearance."
109
Jane Austen
We have seen this room on a gala night when
lighted up by the "five superb glass chandeliers,"
and we could almost fancy we beheld the " all-
THE MUSICIANS GALLEKY
admired Rauzzini " in his tie-wig, conducting
his famous band in the musicians' gallery. We
seemed to hear the strains of their music accom-
panied by the tread of the dancers' feet. "The
Monday dress-ball," says a contemporary writer,
no
Bath
"is devoted to country dances only. At the
fancy-ball on Thursday two cotillions are danced,
one before and one after tea." This fancy-ball
was not a bal costume^, but simply an occasion on
which the stringent rules regulating evening dress
were relaxed. "In the height of the season,"
continues our author, "there are generally twelve
sets, and as the ladies, on this occasion, exert their
fancy to the utmost in the display of their shapes
and their dress, the spectacle is magnificent." The
ladies, we read, wore comparatively short skirts
for the cotillion with their "over-dresses pictu-
resquely looped up." Does not this remind us of
Isabella and Catherine " pinning up each other's
train for the dance " ? A certain Monsieur de la
Cocardiere, we find, presided over the cotillions.
He was a French prisoner-of-war, and, being an
accomplished dancer, was a great favourite in the
society of Bath.
As Miss Austen moved about the ball-room she
must surely have thought of her own Catherine
Morland joyfully joining the set on Henry Tilney's
arm, when the irrepressible John Thorpe in vain
exclaimed, " Heyday, Miss Morland ! What is the
meaning of this ? I thought you and I were to
dance together. . . . This is a cursed shabby trick."
In going to the concert or tea-room Miss Austen
would cross the octagon-room — the octagon-room
so elegant in form and decoration with its domed
Jane Austen
roof and encircling sculptured frieze, into which
the ball-room, the card-room, the tea-room, and
the vestibule all open. Here it was that Jane
Austen contrived the memorable meeting between
Anne Elliot and her sailor lover after their
estrangement, when Anne became convinced that
he still loved her.
The concert or tea-room is even more ornate
than the octagon-room with its many pillars, its
statues, its chimney-pieces, carved in rich scrolls,
and its long gallery, whose balustrade is of
delicate wrought iron. There, on ball-nights, the
company adjourned for tea, and on concert nights,
for music.
The old Assembly or Lower Rooms no longer
exist, having been destroyed by fire many years
ago. The author of a Bath Guide which appeared
early in the century, speaks of them as situated
"on the Walks leading from the Grove to the
Parades," and as containing "a ball-room ninety
feet long, as well as two tea-rooms, a card-room,"
and "an apartment devoted to the games of chess
and backgammon " ; and tells us that they were
'* superbly furnished with chandeliers, girandoles,
&c." Some graceful settees of Chippendale's
Chinese pattern are still to be seen that formerly
stood in the Lower Rooms. " The balls," writes
our author, "begin at six o'clock and end at
eleven. . . . About nine o'clock the gentlemen
112
Bath
treat their partners with tea, and when that is
over the company pursue their diversions till the
moment comes for closing the ball." Then the
Master of the Ceremonies, "entering the ball-
room, orders the music to cease, and the ladies
thereupon resting themselves till they grow cool,
their partners complete the ceremonies of the
evening by handing them to the chairs in which
they are to be conveyed to their respective lodg-
ings."
It was at a ball in the Lower Rooms, we remem-
ber, that Henry Tilney was first introduced to
Catherine Morland, and that when he was " treat-
ing his partner to tea," he laughingly accused her
of keeping a journal in which he feared he should
make but a poor figure. " Shall I tell you," he
asks, " what you ought to say ? I danced with a
very agreeable young man introduced by Mr.
King ; had a great deal of conversation with him ;
seems a most extraordinary genius." This Mr.
King was, it seems, a real personage. He was
Master of the Ceremonies at the Lower Rooms,
from the year 1785 to 1805, when he became
Master of the Ceremonies for the Upper Rooms.
A code of rules compiled by him was used for
about thirty years. One of these rules, originally
laid down by Beau Nash, forbade gentlemen to
wear boots in the rooms of an evening. It is said
that when a country squire once attempted to defy
ri 3 H
Jane Austen
this rule, in the days of the King of Bath, Beau
Nash asked him why he had not brought his
horse into the ball-room, " since the four-footed
beast was as well shod as his master."
The ball-room was used during the daytime as
a promenade, for which it was well suited from its
size and pleasant situation ; its windows com-
manding extensive views of the Avon winding
amidst green meadows and flanked by wooded
hills. The accompanying reproduction of an old
print taken from a design for a fan, shows the
ball-room when used for this purpose. It was the
fashion also for the company to invite each other
to partake of breakfast at the Lower Rooms after
taking their early baths or first glass of water.
It was in the year 1820 that these old Assembly
Rooms were burnt to the ground. They had
been founded by the great Beau Nash himself,
and had flourished for more than a hundred years.
The last gala held within their walls was singularly
appropriate for the conclusion of their existence.
This gala, consisting of a concert, ball and supper,
and attended by nearly 700 people, was given to
celebrate the eightieth birthday of Mrs. Piozzi,
who, as Mrs. Thrale, was so prominent a figure in
the London and Bath society of the latter end of
the eighteenth century. When the dancing began,
"the veteran lady led off with her adopted son,
Sir John Salusbury, dancing (according to an eye-
114
Bath
witness) with astonishing elasticity and with all
the true air of dignity which might have been
expected of one of the best-bred females in
society."*
The theatre that Miss Austen knew, and where
THE OLD THEATRE
she placed the meeting between Henry Tilney
and Catherine Morland after their misunder-
standing when they conversed in Mrs. Allen's
box, was not the present Bath theatre but the old
theatre in Orchard Street. There Mrs. Siddons
had first made a name, and there John Kemble,
:;: See " Piozziana," by a friend, 1883.
? r 7
Jane Austen
Foote and many another well-known actor had
performed ; there, too, Sheridan's " Rivals" achieved
a brilliant success after its cold reception in
London. The building is still standing, but it
has passed through some strange vicissitudes. In
1809, soon after the erection of the new theatre,
it was converted into a Roman Catholic chapel,
and so remained for fifty-four years, when it
became a Freemasons' Hall. Some traces, how-
ever, of its early origin seem still to cling to the
place, for, looking at it from the street, we noticed
what Dickens has termed a " furtive sort of door
with a curious up-all-night air about it," which
an old print shows to have been once the pit
entrance.
In Miss Austen's day the "White Hart" and
the " York House " were the chief inns and coach-
ing houses of Bath. The "White Hart" stood
in Stall Street facing the Pump Room. It was
pulled down in 1867, and replaced by a big
modern hotel. We have, however, seen a print of
the old inn that hangs in the Pump Room, in which
it is represented as a large flat stone building with
a pillared portico in the centre, upon which stands
the figure of a white hart. As we looked at the
long rows of windows in the print, we wondered
which of them belonged to the spacious parlour
occupied by the Musgrove family, in which the
momentous scene in "Persuasion" took place,
1x8
Bath
when Captain Wentworth, overhearing Anne
Elliot's words to Captain Harville, writes the
letter to her which reopens a world of happiness
to them both.
In one of her letters Miss Austen remarks :
" On Sunday we went to church twice, and after
evening- service walked a little in the Crescent
Fields." Probably the " church " here mentioned
was the Octagon Chapel, the favourite place of
worship, in her day, of the visitors to Bath. It
stands in Milsom-street at the end of a passage
guarded by some iron gates, and would be on her
way from Paragon to the Crescent Fields (now the
Victoria Park). The building is no longer used
as a chapel, but when we saw it a few years ago
it was a quaint old-world place, with high pews,
deep galleries, and pulpit, all of dark polished
wood. The light came down from a lanthorn
in the centre of the roof, and we noticed six
curious recesses ranged beneath the galleries.
These recesses " were really neatly furnished
rooms, with chairs, tables, and all necessary com-
forts." An old advertisement announces that
during the winter season " six fires are constantly
kept burning " in them " for the benefit of
invalids." The organ stands in the western
gallery, and there William Herschel performed as
organist for some years. He had, however, given
up music for astronomy before Miss Austen's day.
up
Jane Austen
Mrs. Piozzi, who lived for a time in Bath, writes
to a friend : " You will rejoice to hear that I came
out alive from the Octagon Chapel, where Rider,
Bishop of Gloucester, preached on behalf of the
missionaries to a crowd, such as in my long life I
never witnessed. We were packed like seeds in
a sunflower."^
In going towards the Crescent Fields, Miss
Austen would proceed along George Street, and
then would turn up steep Gay Street, whence a
fine view of Beechen Cliff is to be had, "that
noble hill," she writes, " whose beautiful verdure
and hanging coppice render it so striking an
object from almost every opening in Bath." It
was on Beechen Cliff that Catherine Morland
was walking with the Tilneys when Henry dis-
coursed upon the picturesque in Nature — talking
of " foregrounds, distances, second distances, side-
screens and perspective, lights and shades, and
Catherine was so hopeful a scholar, that when they
gained the top of Beechen Cliff, she voluntarily
rejected the whole city of Bath as unworthy
to make part of a landscape."
The upper end of Gay Street opens into the
Circus, which stands on very high ground. Miss
Burney has truly styled Bath "a city of palaces,
a town of hills and a hill of towns." From the
Circus Miss Austen and her friends would pass
* " Famous Buildings of Bath and District," by J. F. Meehan.
120
Bath
by Brock Street into the Royal Crescent, and so
into the Crescent Fields. "At all times the Cres-
cent," writes Mr. Egan, "is an attractive pro-
menade for the visitors of Bath ; but in the season
on a Sunday it is also crowded with fashionables of
every kind ; and with the addition of the splendid
barouche, dashing curricle, elegant tandem, and
gentlemen on horseback, the Royal Crescent
strongly reminds the spectator of Hyde Park
and Kensington Gardens when adorned with all
their brilliancy of company." The " Crescent
Fields " slope down towards the Avon, command-
ing beautiful views of the winding river and
surrounding country. Although their name has
been changed they are probably little altered since
Miss Austen strolled about them on that Sunday
afternoon in May a hundred years ago.
CHAPTER XII
BATH
"... the finished garden to the view
Its vistas opens."
During the summer of 1801 the Austens took
possession of their new house, No. 4 Sydney
Place. Sydney Place lies at the further end of
Pulteney Street, flanking a part of the Sydney
Gardens. Jane had always liked this situation
but had feared the houses there would prove too
expensive for the family means. "It would be
very pleasant," she had written before leaving
Steventon, "to be near the Sydney Gardens.
We could go into the labyrinth every day."
We have visited the house in Sydney Place, and
have sat in the pretty drawing-room with its three
tall windows overlooking the Gardens. The
morning sun was streaming in at these windows
and falling upon the quaint empire furniture which
adorns the room, and which pleasantly suggests
the Austens' sojourn there. The house is roomy
and commodious. Beneath the drawing-room,
which is on the first floor, are the dining-room and
J23
A CORNER OF THE DRAWING-ROOM AT 4 SYDNEY l'LACE
Bath
'arched hall from which a passage leads to a garden
at the back of the house. The large, old-fashioned
kitchen, with its shining copper pans and its
dresser, laden with fine old china, looked as if it
had remained untouched since the Austens' day.
The Sydney Gardens have lost none of their
charms since it was said of them long ago that
"the hand of taste is visible in every direction."
There are sloping lawns, and shady walks under
the boughs of fine trees. A classical pavilion
with a pillared front crowns the summit of a green
bank, and, near at hand, the waters of the Kennet
and Avon Canal pass beneath the arch of an old
stone bridge. " Upon gala-nights," writes Mr.
Egan, " the music, singing, cascades, transparen-
cies, fireworks, and superb illuminations, render
these gardens very similar to Vauxhall." Miss
Austen mentions one of these galas in a letter,
remarking that the " fireworks were really beauti-
ful, surpassing her expectations, and that the
illuminations too were very pretty."
In a playful letter to her sister, written from
Bath, Jane Austen says, "Benjamin Portal is here.
How charming that is ! I do not exactly know
why, but the phrase followed so naturally that I
could not help putting it down.
" I am very glad you liked my lace, and so are
you and so is Martha, and we are all glad
together. I have got your cloak home, which is
I2 5
Jane Austen
quite delightful — as delightful, at least, as half
the circumstances which are called so.
". . . . We walked to Weston one evening last
week and liked it very much. Liked what very
much ? Weston ? No, walking to Weston, I
have not expressed myself properly."
In another letter of later date she writes : " The
friendship between Mrs. Chamberlayne and me
which you predicted has already taken place, for
we shake hands whenever we meet. Our grand
walk to Weston was again fixed for yesterday,
and was accomplished in a very striking manner.
Every one of the party declined, under some
pretence or other, except our two selves, and we
had therefore a tete-a-tete, but that we should
equally have had after the first two yards had half
the inhabitants of Bath set off with us.
"It would have amused you to see our progress.
We went up by Sion Hill, and returned across
the fields. In climbing a hill Mrs. Chamberlayne
is very capital ; I could with difficulty keep pace
with her, yet would not flinch for the world. On
plain ground I was quite her equal. And so we
posted away under a fine hot sun, she without any
parasol or any shade to her hat, stopping for
nothing and crossing the Churchyard at Weston
with as much expedition, as if we were afraid of
being buried alive." #
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
126
VESTIBULE AT 4 SYDNEY PLACE
Bath
The name of " Weston " naturally brings to our
mind the idea of Mrs. Elton and her " exploring
parties " with " Selina " and Mr. Suckling in the
"barouche-landau," of which she boasted to
Emma ; but their expedition was to King's Weston
in the vicinity of Bristol, and not to the little
village of Weston near to Bath.
" My morning engagement," Jane writes, " was
with the Cookes and our party consisted of
George and Mary, a Mr. L., Miss B., who had
been with us at the concert, and the youngest Miss
W. . . . Mary W.'s turn is actually come to be
grown up, and have a fine complexion, and wear
great square muslin shawls. I have not expressly
enumerated myself among the party, but there I
was ; and my cousin George was very kind, and
talked sense to me every now and then, in the
intervals of his more animated fooling with Miss
B., who is very young and rather handsome. . . .
There was a monstrous deal of stupid quizzing
and commonplace nonsense talked, but scarcely
any wit ; all that bordered on it or on sense came
from my cousin George, whom, altogether, I like
very well. Mr. B. seems nothing more than a tall
young man." # This "Cousin George " was the
Rev. George Leigh Cooke, afterwards well known
and respected at Oxford. As " Tutor in Corpus
Christi College, he became instructor to some of
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
129 I
Jane Austen
the most distinguished undergraduates of his time :
amongst others to Dr. Arnold, the Rev. John
Keble, and Sir John Coleridge." #
" When I tell you I have been visiting a
countess this morning," Miss Austen continues,
"you will immediately with great justice but no
truth, guess it to be Lady Roden — No ; it is Lady
Leven, the mother of Lord Balgonie. On receiv-
ing a message from Lord and Lady Leven, through
the Mackays, declaring their intention of waiting
on us, we thought it right to go to them. I hope
we have not done too much, but the friends and
admirers of Charles must be attended to. They
seem very reasonable good sort of people, very
civil and full of his praise. We were shown at first
into an empty drawing-room, and presently in came
his lordship. . . . He is a tall gentleman-like
looking man, with spectacles and rather deaf. After
sitting with him ten minutes we walked away ;
but Lady Leven coming out of the dining-parlour
as we passed, we were obliged to attend her back
to it, and pay our visit over again. ... By this
means we had the pleasure of hearing Charles's
praises twice over. There was a pretty little Lady
Marianne of the party, to be shaken hands with
and asked if she remembered Mr. Austen." f
Charles Austen was, at that time, first lieutenant
:r " Memoir," by J. E. Austen-Leigh.
f "Letters," Lord Brabourne.
130
Bath
of the Endymion, and in that capacity he had
shown attention and kindness to some of Lord
Leven's family.
Here is an allusion to her brother Henry. " I
wrote to Henry," she says, "because I had a
letter from him in which he desired to hear from
me very soon. His to me is most affectionate
and kind, as well as entertaining ; there is no merit
to him in that; he cannot help being amusing.
He offers to meet us on the sea-coast if the plan
of which Edward gave him some hint takes place.
Will not this be making the execution of such a
plan more desirable and delightful than ever?
He talks of the rambles we took together last
summer with pleasing affection."
Whilst residing in Bath, Jane Austen wrote the
unfinished tale of "The Watsons," which is given in
the second edition of the " Memoir." " The Wat-
sons," though only a sketch, contains characters
such as Jane Austen alone could have created,
and we part from Tom Musgrave, Emma Watson,
herself, Mr. Howard, Lord Osborne and little
Charles, after so brief an acquaintance, with great
regret. The inn in the " town of D. in Surrey,"
where the ball takes place, which is so admirably
described, was intended, we understand, for the
" Red Lion " at Dorking. Miss Austen some-
times visited her cousins, the Cookes, at Bookham,
and there she would have been within reach of
131
Jane Austen
Dorking and also of Box Hill, the scene of the
unlucky picnic in " Emma."
In 1803 " Northanger Abbey " was sold to a
Bath publisher (Bull, of the Circulating- Library, it
is believed) for the modest sum of ten pounds.
But it did not appear before the public, as might
have been expected, but remained for several years
hidden away in some dusty drawer in the pub-
lisher's office. When, however, Jane Austen's
fame, as a writer, was becoming established, she
desired to recover the copyright of this early work,
" One of her brothers undertook the negotiation.
He found the purchaser very willing to receive
back his money, and to resign all claim to the
copyright. When the bargain was concluded and
the money paid, but not till then, the negotiator
had the satisfaction of informing him that the
work, which had been so lightly esteemed, was by
the author of " Pride and Prejudice."*
- ;: " Memoir," by J. E. Austen-Leigh.
CHAPTER XIII
LYME
" This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself?
In the Autumn of 1804 Miss Jane Austen,
together with her father and mother, spent some
weeks at Lyme Regis. As they drove to that
place from Bath, they would probably go by way
of Shepton Mallet, Somerton and Crewkerne, and,
leaving Axminster a couple of miles to their right,
would join the Lyme Road where an old inn
called " The Hunter's Lodge " stands. Then
passing through the " cheerful village of Uplyme "
they would descend the long hill towards Lyme
itself, and pass down its quaint main street, which
seems to be " almost hurrying into the water " as
Miss Austen says. Half way down the street the
chaise would turn into a lane, which, running
westward, finally makes a precipitous descent to
the harbour. At the end of the little parade or
"walk" nearest to the harbour on a grassy hill-
side there stands a long, rambling, white cottage,
133
Jane Austen
and it is in this cottage that tradition declares the
Austens to have stayed.
Strangely enough, two members of the family,
visiting Lyme in later years to trace the places of
which Miss Austen speaks, lodged in this very
house without being aware of its associations.
One of these, Miss Lefroy, writes, " Leaving the
town on our left we followed a road which took
us down the steepest and stoniest pitch we had as
yet encountered, at the bottom of which we turned
into a little bit of street, so narrow that there was
only just room for the carriage to pass, out of
which we descended on the Esplanade and drew
up at our lodgings. And such lodgings ! Surely
no other town but Lyme could have supplied
them. They were very clean, and the cooking
and attendance were good ; but the house was
nothing but a queer, ramshackle cottage with low
rooms and small windows, and a staircase so
narrow and steep and twisted, and withal dark,
that it was a source of danger to get up and down
it. Then there were two ground floors, one in
its proper place, containing kitchen, entrance and
dining room, and the other at the top of the house,
containing the bedrooms and back door, which
latter opened on to the green hill behind. The
drawing - room which, by comparison with the
rest, might be called spacious, was on the middle
floor, and from thence we had a charming view of
134
Lyme
the sea and harbour and Cobb on one side, and
of the pretty chain of eastern cliffs, on the other."
We can imagine Miss Jane Austen's delight
in this prospect, of which she afterwards wrote,
" the walk to the Cobb, skirting round the pleasant
little bay, which, in the season, is animated with
bathing machines and company ; the Cobb itself,
its old wonders and new improvements, with the
very beautiful line of cliffs, stretching out to the
east of the town, are what the stranger's eye will
seek, and a very strange stranger it must be who
does not see charms in the immediate environs of
Lyme, to make him wish to know it better."
We have entered the doors of the "queer ram-
shackle cottage," now known as " Mrs. Dean's
house," have climbed its " steep, narrow, twisted
staircase," and stood in its quaint parlour, whose
windows command the view described, seen across
a little terrace garden, gay with flowers.
The evidence that Jane Austen stayed in this
house stands on good authority. It was in 1827,
just ten years after her death, that a certain
Captain Boteler, R.N., came to Lyme to take
the command of the Coastguard Service in that
district. By that time Miss Austen's name as a
writer had become well known and the people of
Lyme were proud of the fact that she had visited
their town. On the captain's arrival this cottage
was pointed out to him, as the house in which she
i35
Jane Austen
had lodged. Captain Boteler died some years ago,
but members of his family still reside in Lyme.
v\
^rL__,^ ft. --*
HOUSE IN WHICH JANE AUSTEN LODGED
Just below "Mrs. Dean's house" and on the
further side of the " walk," there is a white cottage
perched on the corner of a sea-wall that juts into
136
Lyme
the water and seems to lift it and its tiny garden
out of the waves. Seagulls hover about the very
windows of " Bay Cottage." Behind it stretches
the harbour, while, near at hand, are the remains
of an old pier. "In a small house near the foot
of a pier of unknown date," writes the author of
" Persuasion," " were the Harvilles settled." This
passage clearly points to Bay Cottage. It lies
nearer than any other house to the foot of the old
pier in question, and it is, besides, the only house
in sheltered Lyme which is so much exposed to
weather as to make Captain Harville's "con-
trivances against the winter storms " necessary.
From its windows, alone, moreover, could Captain
Benwick have been seen, after Louisa Musgrove's
fall on the Cobb, "flying past the house" and
towards the town for a surgeon. From " Mrs.
Dean's house" Miss Austen would look directly
down upon Bay Cottage, and, we can well believe,
would be struck by its quaint sea-girt situation
and would be likely to choose it for the abode of
the good captain and his family.
It was in Bay Cottage that we ourselves lodged
during our sojourn in Lyme. Its resemblance to
the description of Captain Harville's house had
struck us at once, but we soon found that our
landlady looked upon the whole matter as settled
beyond a doubt. She talked of the Harvilles,
the Musgroves, Anne Elliot and Captain Went-
137
Jane Austen
worth as if they had been in her house but the
season before, and pointing- to a bedroom on the
first floor, exclaimed eagerly, " That is the room
where the poor young lady was nursed." And,
frttifTtf
CAPTAIN HARVILLE S HOUSE
again, showing us a cheerful room on the top
storey over-looking the sea and the fishing-boats,
remarked, " That was the children's nursery ! "
In our little parlour, with its projecting bay
window, we fancied the Uppercross party as-
'38
Lyme
sembled when they called on the Harvilles for the
first time and "found rooms so small as none
but those who invite from the heart could think
capable of accommodating so many,'' and thought
of Anne noticing "the ingenious contrivances and
nice arrangements of Captain Harville to turn the
actual space to the best possible account, to supply
the deficiencies of lodging-house furniture, and
defend the windows and doors against the winter
storms to be expected." In the evenings we used
to fancy the Captain, having finished his more
active employments for the time being, sitting
down " to his large fishing-net in one corner of
the room." What a kindly nature has Miss
Austen there described! No wonder that "Anne
thought she left great happiness behind her when
she quitted the house."
The Cobb lies on the further side of the har-
bour. It is a massive, semi-circular stone pier
upon which are two broad causeways, on different
levels, forming the Upper and the Lower Cobb.
It has undergone many a repair since Miss Austen
walked upon it in 1804, Dut > nevertheless, a con-
siderable part of the old masonry still exists, which
is marked by rough-hewn stones placed vertically.
Against some of this old masonry, and about half
way along the Cobb, are to be seen the identical
'• steep flight of steps " w r here the memorable
scene of the accident in " Persuasion " is laid. It
T 39
Jane Austen
Is said that when Tennyson visited Lyme his
friends were anxious to point out to him the
reputed landing-place of the Duke of Monmouth,
"Tennyson waxed indignant, ' Don't talk to me/
he said, ' of the Duke of Monmouth. Show me
the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell ! ' " #
The steps in question are formed of rough
blocks of stone which project, like the teeth of a
rake, from the wall behind. We can ourselves
bear witness to the " hardness of the pavement "
below, which Captain Wentworth feared would
cause " too great a jar " when he urged the young
lady to desist from the fatal leap.
Looking westward from the Cobb the rocky
coast leading to Pinny can be seen — Pinny, of
which Jane Austen has written in such admiration
of its "green chasms between romantic rocks,
where the scattered forest-trees and orchards of
luxuriant growth, declare that many a generation
must have passed away since the first partial
falling of the cliff prepared the ground for such a
state, where a scene so wonderful and so lovely
is exhibited, as may more than equal any of the
resembling scenes in the far-famed Isle of Wight."
Could Miss Austen see Pinny, as it now is, she
would think it even more "wonderful and lovely "
than it was in her day. For since then another
great landslip has occurred. "It took place," we
* Article in Monthly Packet (1893), by John Vaughan.
140
Lyme
are told, "on Christmas Day 1839, when over
forty acres of cultivated land slowly and silently
slipped away to a far lower level. Two cottages
were bodily removed and deposited with shattered
walls to a considerable distance below the cliffs,
while an orchard, which still continues to bear
fruit, was transplanted as it stood." #
Looking eastward from the Cobb, the eye dwells
upon the " very beautiful line of cliffs stretching
to the east of the town." In a valley between the
hills lies Charmouth. Miss Austen speaks of " its
high grounds and extensive sweeps of country
and its sweet retired bay backed by dark cliffs,
where fragments of low rock among- the sands
make it the happiest spot for watching the flow of
the tide, for sitting in unwearied contemplation."
In going to Charmouth, Miss Austen would
take a pathway on the top of the Church Cliffs,
which was the fashionable promenade in her day,
but which has long since been washed away
by the sea. Even the old church itself is now
almost undermined by the waves.
The Parade or " Walk," as it used to be called,
runs along the foot of a green hill which "skirts
the pleasant little bay " of Lyme from the town
to the harbour. At the town end of this " Walk "
some thatched cottages nestle under the sheltering
hill, and just beyond them stand the Assembly
:;: Article in Monthly Packet (1893), by John Yaughan.
141
Jane Austen
Rooms perched upon the eastern promontory of
the bay. The scene in its principal features is
the same as in Miss Austen's day ; a sea wall
being the only marked addition. A stretch of
firm sands, lying between the points of the bay,
forms a primitive highway for the heavily-laden
waggons bearing freight from the harbour to the
town. The sight of the horses up to their flanks
in a flowing tide is what Miss Austen must often
have looked upon.
The Assembly Rooms used formerly to be
thrown open to company during the season twice
a week, namely on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
" The ball last night was pleasant," Jane writes on
September 14, ''but not full for Thursday. My
father stayed contentedly till half-past nine (we
went a little after eight), and then walked home
with James and a lanthorn ; though I believe the
lanthorn was not lit as the moon was up ; but
sometimes the lanthorn may be a great conveni-
ence to him."
In former times there were no lamps on the
" Walk," so that as Mr. Austen would have to
traverse the whole length of it in returning home
" a lanthorn or dark nights " would certainly " be
a great convenience."
The ball-room is little changed since Miss
Austen danced in it that September evening
nearly a hundred years ago. It has lost its three
142
Lyme
glass chandeliers which used to hang from the
arched ceiling, but these may still be seen in
a private house in the neighbourhood. The
THE ASSEMBLY BALL-ROOM
orchestra consisted, we are told, of three violins
and a violoncello. We visited the room by day-
light, and felt almost as if it were afloat, for
nothing but blue sea and sky was to be seen from
its many windows. From the wide recessed
143
Jane Austen
window at the end, however, we got a glimpse of
the sands and of the harbour and Cobb beyond.
Just outside this recessed window there is a
steep flight of stone steps which leads from the
Parade down to the beach. In former times this
flight was much longer than it is now, part of it
having been removed to make room for a cart
track. On these steps the author of " Persuasion "
effected the first meeting of Anne Elliot and her
cousin, when his gaze of admiration attracted the
attention of Captain Wentworth. Anne and her
friends were all returning to their inn for break-
fast, as the reader will remember, after taking a
stroll on the beach.
Now the inn to which they were bound we
fully believe to have been the " Royal Lion,"
which stands on the right-hand side about half
way up the main street. The circumstances of
the story all suggest it rather than the old " Three
Cups," the only other inn of importance in
Miss Austen's day. From the quaint projecting
windows of the " Royal Lion " the ladies would
be able to see Mr. Elliot's "curricle coming round
from the stable yard to the front door," and could
" all kindly watch " its owner as he drove up the
steep hill. This would have been impossible
from the windows of the "Three Cups," which
stood at the bottom of the main street and turned
slightly away from it. The "Three Cups " was
144
Lyme
burnt down in 1844, but we have seen its site and
have looked at an old print showing the building
and its surroundings.
The personages introduced to us by Miss
Austen are not only her creations they are her
friends, and have long since become the friends
of her readers, and so we pass and repass from
them to their author as if all had equally together
walked this earth. We look up at the windows of
the "Royal Lion" and feel that it would be hardly
surprising if we caught a glimpse of Anne's sweet
face, or of Mary looking out for the " Elliot
countenance," and we also look up the rambling
old-world street and almost expect to see Miss
Austen herself coming down it. The very sounds
of Lyme suggest her day. The town-crier goes
his rounds with his bell, and his orthodox shout
of "O yes, O yes," announcing all matters of
moment, such as the return of the trawlers to the
harbour, or the arrival of a collier with coal ; while
at eight o'clock, each evening, the curfew bell is to
be heard tolling in the old church tower on the
crumbling cliff.
Miss Austen has spoken in praise of " the
wooded varieties" of the "cheerful village of
Uplyme." We may fancy her going there by a
footpath along the valley through which the little
river Lym winds. The ground shelves abruptly
down to this stream from behind the houses in
145 k
Jane Austen
the main street ; some of whose terrace gardens
descend to its banks. In one of the most beautiful
of these gardens Mary Russell Mitford, when a
child, used to play. She speaks in her "Recollec-
tions " of the beauty of this romantic garden and
of the mansion rented by her father in 1795,
where the great Earl of Chatham once lived. Its
large gates surmounted by spread eagles are still
to be seen in the main street. Opposite to them
stands the tiny cottage of Mary Anning, the girl
geologist, who discovered the giant bones of
monsters that now stretch their length in our
National Museum.
In walking up the valley by the side of the
Lym, Miss Austen would pass a part of the stream
called "Jordan" with its adjacent green sward
known as " Paradise," where the early Baptist
settlers baptized their followers. A little higher
up she would pass Colway Farm, the head-
quarters of Prince Maurice during the famous
siege of Lyme.
Everywhere in Lyme and its neighbourhood
there are tokens of the troublous times through
which it has passed, from the conquest of the
" Invincible Armada " to the home tragedy of
Monmouth's rebellion. But to-day in visiting the
little sunny town these great and stirring memories
pale before the thought of the work and of the
writings of three quiet women — Mary Anning,
146
Lyme
Mary Russell Mitford, and Jane Austen. Like
Tennyson, we say " Don't talk to me of the Duke
of Monmouth. Show me the spot where Louisa
Musgrove fell ! "
CHAPTER XIV
SOUTHAMPTON
" A grey-walled city by the sea."
A few months after the return of the Austens to
Bath a sorrowful event occurred in the death of
the head of the family — the Rev. George Austen.
He died January 21, 1805.
We have already quoted his grand-daughter
" Anna's " description of his appearance in elderly
life, and remember how lovingly she dwells upon
the beauty of his milk-white curly hair and of his
bright hazel eyes. Mr. Austen was buried at
Walcot Church, which stands on the eastern side
of Bath, its graveyard sloping towards the river
Avon.
His widow and daughters "were left in what
must be called straitened circumstances," re-
marks a member of the family, "for he had no
private fortune and his wife had but a small one."
A few years later Mrs. Austen wrote to her sister-
in-law : " One hundred and forty pounds a year is
the whole of my own income. My good sons have
148
Southampton
done all the rest." Jane might well be proud of
her brothers, for they "shone in their own homes,
were kindly affectioned one towards the other,
and as sons most attentive and generous."
The Austens had quitted their home in Sydney
Place in the late autumn of 1804, and had removed
to a house in Green Park Buildings. On the
death of Mr. Austen the widow and her daughters
went into lodgings for a time at 25 Gay Street.
But towards the close of this same year they
left Bath altogether and went to live in South-
ampton, where they shared a house with Captain
Francis Austen and his wife, the captain, of
course, being frequently absent at sea.
The new home, which was a "commodious
old-fashioned house," was situated in a corner of
Castle Square. Mr. Austen Leigh, who visited
his relatives there when a boy, writes : " My
grandmother's house had a pleasant garden
bounded, on one side, by the old city wall ; the
top of this wall was sufficiently wide to afford a
pleasant walk with an extensive view, easily
accessible to ladies by steps. ... At that time
Castle Square was occupied by a fantastic edifice
too large for the space in which it stood, though
too small to accord with its castellated style,
erected by the second Marquis of Lansdown.
. . . The marchioness had a light phaeton, drawn
by six, and sometimes by eight, little ponies, each
149
Jane Austen
pair decreasing in size, and becoming lighter in
colour, through all the grades of dark brown,
light brown, bay and chesnut, as it was placed
farther away from the carriage. The two leading
pairs were managed by two boyish postillions, the
two pairs nearest to the carriage were driven in
hand. It was a delight to me to look from the
window and see this fairy equipage put together,
for the premises of this castle were so contracted
that the whole process went on in the little space
that remained of the open square."*
Miss Austen writes to her sister in the early
spring " Our garden is putting in order by a man,
who bears a remarkably good character, has a
very fine complexion, and asks something less
than the first. The shrubs which border the
gravel walk, he says, are only sweet-brier and
roses, and the latter of an indifferent sort. We
mean to get a few of a better kind therefore, and
at my own particular desire he procures us some
syringas. I could not do without a syringa, for
the sake of Cowper's line. We talk also of a
laburnum.'.' The line referred to occurs in the
" Task." The poet is picturing to himself, during
a wintry walk, the beauty of the coming spring,
and speaks of
"... Laburnum rich
In streaming gold, syringa, ivory pure."
* " Memoir," by J. E. Austen-Leigh.
150
Southampton
"The alterations and improvements within
doors," she continues, "advance very properly,
and the offices will be made very convenient in-
deed- Our dressinsr-table is constructing out of a
larore kitchen table belon^ingr to the house, for
doing which we have the permission of Mr.
Husket. Lord Lansdown's painter — domestic
painter I should call him. for he lives in the
Casde- Domestic chaplains have given way to
this more necessary office, and I suppose whenever
the walls want no touching up he is employed
about my lady's face." *
We have been to Southampton, following Miss
Austen's steps, and have wandered about an open
space still called " Casde Square." endeavouring
to trace the site of the house and garden — the
garden which was " considered the best in the
town.'' But houses and orardens and fantastic
casde itself have all disappeared to make room
for rows of small dwellings. Before we left the
place, however, we learnt on good authority that
the best houses stood on the northern side of the
square. The old city wall, which bounded the
Austens' garden, is still standing, and the view to
be seen from its parapet of the wide-spreading
Solent and its wooded banks can be litde changed
since Miss Austen looked upon it nearly a hundred
years ago.
" Letters. 3 Lord Brabocnte-
Jane Austen
Miss Mitford, who has so often helped us to
realise the surroundings of Jane Austen's houses,
visited Southampton in 1812. She writes to a
friend : " Have you ever been at that lovely spot
which combines all that is enchanting in wood and
land and water, with all that is ' buxom, blythe
and debonair' in society — that charming town
/"•%*/
nut)
OLD CITY WALL
which is not a watering-place only because it is
something better? . . . Southampton has in my
eyes," she continues, "an attraction independent
even of its scenery in the total absence of the
vulgar hurry of business or the chilling apathy of
fashion. It is, indeed, all life, all gaiety, but it
has an airiness, an animation which might become
the capital of Fairyland."
Miss Austen mentions a ball at the Assembly
i5 2
Southampton
Rooms in one of her letters. These rooms, we are
told by a contemporary writer, were situated near
the West Quay, and were very elegantly fitted up.
The Long Room, he says, was built in 1761, the
Ball Room soon afterwards."
" Our ball was rather more amusing than I
expected," Jane writes. . . . "The room was
tolerably full, and there were, perhaps, thirty
couple of dancers. ... It was the same room in
which we danced fifteen years ago. I thought it all
over, and in spite of the shame of being so much
older felt, with thankfulness, that I was quite as
happy now as then. . . . you will not expect to
hear that I was asked to dance, but I was — by
the gentleman whom we met that Sunday with
Captain D'Auvergne. We have always kept
up a bowing acquaintance since, and being pleased
with his black eyes, I spoke to him at the ball,
which brought on me this civility ; but I do not
know his name, and he seems so little at home in
the English language, that I believe his black eyes
may be the best of him." #
In the month of October 1808, sorrow again
visited the Austen family in the sudden death of
Mrs. Edward Austen after the birth of a child.
Jane mourned her loss deeply. She writes to her
sister Cassandra, who was at that time staying at
Godmersham. "We have felt — we do feel — for
:: " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
153
Jane Austen
you all, as you will not need to be told ; for you,
for Fanny, for Henry, for Lady Bridges, and for
dearest Edward, whose loss and whose sufferings
seem to make those of every other person nothing.
God be praised that you can say what you do of
him ; that he has a religious mind to bear him up,
and a disposition that will gradually lead him to
comfort.
"My dear, dear Fanny, I am so thankful that
she has you with her ! You will be everything to
her ; you will give her all the consolation that
human aid can give. May the Almighty sustain
you all, and keep you, my dearest Cassandra,
well.
"You will know," she continues, "that the
poor boys are at Steventon. Perhaps it is best
for them . . . but I own myself disappointed by
the arrangement. I should have loved to have
them with me at such a time." Recurring to their
loss, she remarks of her sister-in-law, " It is
sweet to think of her great worth, of her solid
principles, of her true devotion, her excellence in
every relation of life."
Again she writes : " That you are for ever in
our thoughts, you will not doubt. I see your
mournful party in my mind's eye under every
varying circumstance of the day ; and in the
evening especially figure to myself its sad gloom ;
the efforts to talk, the frequent summons to
*54
Southampton
melancholy orders and cares, and poor Edward,
restless in misery, going from one room to an-
other, and perhaps not seldom upstairs, to see all
that remains of his Elizabeth. Dearest Fanny
must look upon herself as his prime source of
comfort, his dearest friend ; as the being who is
gradually to supply to him to the extent that is
possible what he has lost. This consideration will
elevate and cheer her." #
It is pleasant to learn that it was soon decided
for the "poor boys" to visit their grandmamma
and aunt at Southampton. Miss Jane Austen
writes on October 24th, " Edward and George
came to us soon after seven on Saturday, very
well, but very cold, having by choice travelled on
the outside, and with no great coat but what Mr.
Wyse, the coachman, good-naturedly spared them
of his as they sat by his side."
Mr. Austen Leigh mentions this same coachman,
of whom he had a distinct boyish recollection, in
the "Vine Hunt." Speaking of the farmer class
of huntsmen he says, " The most remarkable
person of this class, or rather of a class peculiar to
himself, was old Wyse, a civil, respectful-mannered,
elderly man, exceedingly fond of hunting, who
drove Rogers' coach every day, Sundays excepted,
from Southampton to the 'Flower Pot,' Popham
Lane, in the morning, and back to Southampton
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
*55
Jane Austen
in the afternoon. . . . The first time I was
allowed to go out hunting without my father, I
was placed especially under his care ; and as he
used also to drive me to and from Winchester
School several times in the year, I came to look
upon him as an old friend."
To return to Miss Austen's letter. She says of
the little nephews : "They behave extremely well in
every respect, showing quite as much feeling as
one wishes to see, and on every occasion speaking
of their father with the liveliest affection. His
letter was read over by each of them yesterday,
and with many tears ; George sobbed aloud,
Edward's tears do not flow so easily ; but as far
as I can judge they are both very properly im-
pressed by what has happened. George is almost
a new acquaintance to me, and I find him, in a
different way, as engaging as Edward.
"We do not want amusement: bilbocatch, at
which George is indefatigable, spillikins, paper
ships, riddles, conundrums and cards, with watching
the flow and ebb of the river, and now and then a
stroll out, keep us well employed : and we mean
to avail ourselves of our kind papa's consideration,
by not returning to Winchester till quite the
evening of Wednesday." She speaks of taking
her two nephews to church the day before (Sun-
day) and goes on to say : " The weather did not
allow us afterwards to get farther than the quay,
Southampton
where George was very happy as long as we could
stay, flying about from one side to the other, and
skipping on board a collier immediately.
"In the evening we had the Psalms and
Lessons and a sermon at home, to which they
were very attentive ; but you will not expect to
hear that they did not return to conundrums the
moment it was over. . . . While I write now
George is most industriously making and naming
paper ships, at which he afterwards shoots with
horse-chesnuts, brought from Steventon on pur-
pose ; and Edward equally intent over the ' Lake
of Killarney,' twisting himself about in one of our
great chairs.
"... We had a little water party yesterday ;
I and my two nephews went from the Itchen
Ferry up to Northam, where we landed, looked
into the 74, and walked home. ... I had not
proposed doing more than cross the Itchen, but it
proved so pleasant, and so much to the satisfaction
of all, that when we reached the middle of the
stream we agreed to be rowed up the river ; both
the boys rowed a great part of the way, and their
questions and remarks, as well as their enjoyment,
were very amusing. George's inquiries were end-
less, and his eagerness in everything reminds me
often of his Uncle Henry."*
In an account of Southampton published in
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
*57
Jane Austen
1805, the writer speaks of a long causeway,
planted with trees, called the "Beach." "Near
its eastern extremity," he remarks, " is the Cross
House and Itchen Ferry ; the former is a small
round structure with four divisions or apartments
opposite to the principal points of the compass,
and intended for the accommodation of passengers
waiting for the Ferry-boat. In one of the quarters
are the arms of Southampton with the date 1634,
but parts of the building are apparently much
older." We can picture to ourselves the little
party waiting in this quaint building for the boat.
Jane Austen's love for children, and her sym-
pathy with them, appears markedly in her letters.
Spoilt children certainly annoyed her, or rather
the folly of those who spoilt them, as is shown in
her inimitable portraiture of the little Middletons
and their mother. But where shall we find a
more true and tender account of a child's feelings
than in the description of little Fanny Price, when
she first arrives at Mansfield Park ? And, indeed,
in nearly all Miss Austen's works there is some
touch which reveals her intimate knowledge of the
child-mind, a knowledge to be gained only through
love. How true to nature, for instance, is that
picture of the little Gardiners standing upon the
stairs to receive Elizabeth Bennet, "whose eager-
ness for their cousin's appearance would not allow
them to wait in the drawing-room, and whose
158
Southampton
shyness, as they had not seen her for a twelve-
month, prevented their coming lower." And,
again, we are told that when the good people of
Highbury had almost forgotten the adventure of
Miss Smith with the gypsies, it maintained its
ground in the minds of Emma's little nephews, and
" Henry and John were still asking every day for
the story of Harriet and the gypsies, and still
tenaciously setting their aunt right if she varied in
the slightest particular from the original recital."
Here is an account, in one of the " Letters," of
a visit from a child acquaintance. " The morning
was so wet that I was afraid we should not be
able to see our little visitor, but Frank, who alone
could go to church, called for her after service,
and she is now talking away at my side and
examining the treasures of my writing-desk drawers
— very happy I believe. Not at all shy of course.
. . . What has become of all the shyness in the
world ? Moral, as well as natural diseases disap-
pear in the progress of time, and new ones take
their place. Shyness and the sweating sickness
have given way to confidence and paralytic com-
plaints. . . .
" Evening. Our little visitor has just left us, and
left us highly pleased with her ; she is a nice,
natural, open-hearted, affectionate girl, with all the
ready civility which one sees in the best children
in the present day ; so unlike anything that I was,
i59
Jane Austen
myself, at her age, that I am often all astonish-
ment and shame. Half her time was spent at
spillikins, which I consider as a very valuable part
of our household furniture, and as not the least
important benefaction from the family of Knight
to that of Austen."
" You rejoice me," she writes to her sister, " by
what you say of Fanny. . . . While she gives
happiness to those about her she is pretty sure of
her own share. 1 am gratified by her having
pleasure in what I write, but I wish the know-
ledge of my being exposed to her discerning
criticism may not hurt my style, by inducing too
great a solicitude. I begin already to weigh my
words and sentences more than I did, and am
looking about for a sentiment, an illustration or a
metaphor in every corner of the room. Could
my ideas flow as fast as the rain in the store-closet
it would be charming."*
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
CHAPTER XV
STONELEIGH ABBEY
" On scenes like these the eye delights to dwell?
In the month of August 1806, Miss Jane Austen
and her mother paid a visit to their relative, Mr.
Thomas Leigh, of Adlestrop, who had just in-
herited and taken possession of Stoneleigh Abbey
in Warwickshire.
The Abbey stands in one of the most beautiful
and luxuriant parts of the county, between Kenil-
worth and Leamington ; the Avon winding
through its pleasure grounds and deer park. In
the mediaeval part of the building there is an
ancient gate-house, upon which is still to be seen
a stone escutcheon bearing the arms of Henry II.,
the founder of the Abbey.
In the days of the Stuarts the Leighs were ardent
Royalists. It was in Stoneleigh Abbey that King
Charles I. found a resting-place in 1642. "The
King was on his way to set up his standard at Not-
tingham and had marched to Coventry ; but finding
the gates shut against him, and that no summons
161 L
Jane Austen
could prevail with the mayor and magistrates to
open them, he went'thesame night to Sir Thomas
Leigh's house at Stoneleigh, and there his majesty
met with a warm and loyal welcome and right
plenteous and hospitable entertainment from his
devoted subject Sir Thomas." Was Sir Walter
Scott, we wonder, thinking of this same Sir Thomas
Leigh when he described the character of his fine
old cavalier, Sir Harry Lee, of Woodstock ?
STONELEIGH ABBEY
Some of the circumstances of his story curiously
tally with those connected with the Royalist
owner of Stoneleigh Abbey, and certainly the
romantic attachment of the Leighs, as a family, to
the Stuarts would have appealed to the imagina-
tion of the author of " Waverley." So strong was
this attachment, we read, that from the time of
the flight of James II. down to the very close of
the eighteenth century the Lords Leigh, of each
162
Stoneleigh Abbey
succeeding generation, kept aloof from all public
affairs, refusing even to attend the meetings of
Parliament. They lived in complete retirement,
amid the memories of former times, and " sur-
rounded by portraits of the fallen family." Among
these there was a " likeness of King Charles I.,
by Van Dyck, which, during the troubled times,
was painted over with flowers, and which was
only discovered in 1836."
The visit of Miss Jane Austen and her mother
to Stoneleigh Abbey is chronicled in the following
amusing letter, written by Mrs. Austen to a
daughter-in-law, the greater part of which has
fortunately been preserved :
"Stoneleigh Abbey,
"August 13, 1806.
" My Dear Mary, — The very day after I
wrote you my last letter, Mr. Hill wrote his
intention of being at Adlestrop with Mrs. Hill on
Monday, the 4th, and his wish that Mr. Leigh and
family should return with him to Stoneleigh the
following day, as there was much business for the
executors awaiting them at the Abbey, and he
was hurried for time. All this accordingly took
place, and here we found ourselves on Tuesday
(that is yesterday se'nnight) eating fish, venison,
and all manner of good things, in a large and noble
parlour, hung round with family portraits. The
house is larger than I could have supposed. We
163
Jane Austen
cannot find our way about it — I mean the best
part ; as to the offices, which were the Abbey, Mr.
Leigh almost despairs of ever finding his way
about them. I have proposed his setting up
direction posts at the angles. I had expected to
find everything about the place very fine and all
that, but I had no idea of its being so beautiful.
I had pictured to myself long avenues, dark rook-
eries, and dismal yew trees, but here are no such
dismal things. The Avon runs near the house,
amidst green meadows, bounded by large and
beautiful woods, full of delightful walks.
" At nine in the morning we say our prayers in
a handsome chapel, of which the pulpit, &c. &c,
is now hung with black. Then follows breakfast,
consisting of chocolate, coffee, and tea, plum cake,
pound cake, hot rolls, cold rolls, bread and butter,
and dry toast for me. The house steward, a fine,
large, respectable-looking man, orders all these
matters. Mr. Leigh and Mr. Hill are busy a
great part of the morning. We walk a good deal,
for the woods are impenetrable to the sun, even in
the middle of an August day. I do not fail to
spend some part of every day in the kitchen
garden, where the quantity of small fruit exceeds
anything you can form an idea of. This large
family, with the assistance of a great many black-
birds and thrushes, cannot prevent it from rotting
on the trees. The gardens contain four acres and
164
Stoneleigh Abbey
a half. The ponds supply excellent fish, the park
excellent venison ; there is great quantity of
rabbits, pigeons, and all sorts of poultry. There
is a delightful dairy, where is made butter, good
Warwickshire cheese and cream ditto. One man-
servant is called the baker, and does nothing but
brew and bake. The number of casks in the
strong-beer cellar is beyond imagination ; those in
the small-beer cellar bear no proportion, though,
by the bye, the small beer might be called ale with-
out misnomer. This is an odd sort of letter. I
write just as things come into my head, a bit now
and a bit then.
" Now I wish to give you some idea of the inside
of this vast house — first premising that there are
forty-five windows in front, which is quite straight,
with a flat roof, fifteen in a row. You go up a
considerable flight of steps to the door, for some
of the offices are underground, and enter a large
hall. On the right hand is the dining-room and
within that the breakfast-room, where we generally
sit ; and reason good, 'tis the only room besides
the chapel, which looks towards the view. On
the left hand of the hall is the best drawing-room
and within a smaller one. These rooms are rather
gloomy with brown wainscot and dark crimson
furniture, so we never use them except to walk
through to the old picture gallery. Behind the
smaller drawing-room is the state-bedchamber —
165
Jane Austen
an alarming apartment, with its high, dark crimson
velvet bed, just fit for an heroine. The old gallery
opens into it. Behind the hall and parlours there
is a passage all across the house, three staircases
and two small sitting-rooms. There are twenty-
six bedchambers in the new part of the house
and a great many, some very good ones, in the
old. There is also another gallery, fitted up with
modern prints on a buff paper, and a large billiard-
room. Every part of the house and offices is
kept so clean, that were you to cut your finger I
do not think you could find a cobweb to wrap it up
in. I need not have written this long letter, for I
have a presentiment that if these good people live
until next year you will see it all with your own
eyes.
" Our visit has been a most pleasant one. We
all seem in good humour, disposed to be pleased
and endeavouring to be agreeable, and I hope we
succeed. Poor Lady Saye and Sele, to be sure,
is rather tormenting, though sometimes amusing,
and affords Jane many a good laugh, but she
fatigues me sadly on the whole. To-morrow we
depart. We have seen the remains of Kenilworth,
which afforded us much entertainment, and I
expect still more from the sight of Warwick
Castle, which we are going to see to-day. The
Hills are gone, and my cousin, George Cook, is
come. A Mr. Holt Leigh was here yesterday
i66
Stoneleigh Abbey
and gave us all franks. He is member for, and
lives at, Wigan in Lancashire, and is a great friend
of young Mr. Leigh's,* and I believe a distant
cousin. He is a single man on the wrong side of
forty, chatty and well-bred and has a large estate.
There are so many legacies to pay and so many
demands that I do not think Mr. Leigh will find
that he has more money than he knows what to
do with this year, whatever he may do next.
The funeral expenses, proving the will, and
putting the servants in both houses in mourn-
ing must come to a considerable sum ; there were
eighteen men servants." f
The Lady Saye and Sele, alluded to, was a cousin
of the Austens, her mother having been a Leigh.
It is the same Lady Saye and Sele whom Fanny
Burney met "at a rout" in 1782, and of whom
she gives an amusing account in her " Diaries." {
This lady seems to have been a sort of " Mrs.
Leo Hunter." On being introduced to the author
of " Evelina," she exclaimed " I am very happy
to see you ; I have longed to see you a great
while ; I have read your performance, and I am
quite delighted with it ! I think it's the most
elegant novel I ever read in my life. ... I must
* This " young Mr. Leigh " inherited the Stoneleigh estate and
was created Lord Leigh in 1839. f Family MSS.
; Vol. ii.
167
Jane Austen
introduce you," continued her ladyship, "to my
sister (Lady Hawke), she'll be quite delighted to
see you. She has written a novel herself, so you
are sister authoresses. A most elegant thing it
is I assure you. It's called the ' Mausoleum of
Julia!' . . . Lord Hawke himself says it's all
poetry. . . . My sister intends to print her
' Mausoleum ' just for her own friends and
acquaintances."
What ecstasies would Lady Saye and Sele
have experienced could she have foreseen the
future renown of the young cousin with whom
she was walking and talking at Stoneleigh
Abbey !
t,VS \u- t V..-K<. -V\, VH*
CHAPTER XVI
SETTLING AT CHAWTON
"Rural quiet, friendship, books P
In the course of the year 1809 the Austens left
Southampton and settled once more in the heart
of Hampshire. Mr. Edward Austen, whom we
shall henceforth call Mr. Knight, for he assumed
that name about this time, "was able to offer his
mother the choice of two houses on his property ;
one near his usual residence at Godmersham Park
in Kent ; the other near Chawton House, his
occasional residence in Hampshire. The latter
was chosen." Chawton Cottage, as it is called,
" had been occupied by Mr. Knight's steward, but
by some additions to the house, and some judicious
planting and screening, it was made a pleasant
and commodious abode. Mr. Knight was ex-
perienced and adroit in such arrangements, and
this was a labour of love to him." #
Miss Jane Austen, writing to her sister from
Southampton concerning their future plans, says :
* " Memoir," by J. E. Austen-Leigh.
169
Jane Austen
" Yes, yes, we will have a pianoforte, as good a
one as can be got for thirty guineas, and I will
practise country dances, that we may have some
amusement for our nephews and nieces, when we
have the pleasure of their company." Then
speaking of " William," a child of about five years
of age, she says : "His working a footstool for
Chawton is a most agreeable surprise to me, and
I am sure his grandmamma will value it very
much as a proof of his affection and industry ; but
we shall never have the heart to put our feet
upon it, I believe I must make a muslin cover in
satin-stitch to keep it from the dirt. I long to
know what his colours are. I guess greens and
purples." #
A few months after this letter was written, Mrs.
Austen and her two daughters took possession
of their new home. They were accompanied by
Miss Martha Lloyd, a sister of Mrs. James
Austen, who had come to live with them, upon
the death of her mother.
The village of Chawton lies in a specially
beautiful part of Hampshire, about five miles from
Gilbert White's own Selborne, and, like it, famed
for its hop fields and its graceful "hangers";
while within easy reach is the cheerful little town
of Alton. Chawton Cottage stands at the further
end of the village, being the last house on the
:: " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
170
CHAWTOX COTTAGE
Settling at Chawton
right-hand side of the way just where the Win-
chester road branches off from that to Gosport,
and where a space of grass and a small pond lie
in the fork of those roads. Beyond the pond are
some thatched cottages with their neat gardens,
and to the left, skirting the Gosport road, rise the
wooded grounds of Chawton House.
The Cottage is built of brick painted over or
white-washed, and has a deep tiled roof and sash
windows. The front door opens upon the road,
having on each side of it a narrow paled en-
closure. We have entered the Cottage and have
sat in the very room where Miss Jane Austen
used to write — the small parlour on the right-hand
side which looks to the front and where the
family took their meals. "I heard of the Chawton
party," writes a friend to Fanny Knight in 1809,
" looking very comfortable at breakfast, from a
gentleman who was travelling by their door in a
post-chaise." Miss Austen had "no separate
study to retire to" Mr. Austen Leigh tells us,
" and most of the work must have been done in
the general sitting-room, subject to all kinds of
casual interruptions. She was careful that her
occupation should not be suspected by servants,
or visitors, or any person beyond her own family
party. She wrote upon small sheets of paper
which could easily be put away or covered with a
piece of blotting-paper. There was between the
171
Jane Austen
front door and the offices a swing door which
creaked when it was opened, but she objected to
having this little inconvenience remedied, because
it gave her notice when any one was coming. . . .
In that well-occupied female party there must
have been many precious hours of silence during
which the pen was busy at the little mahogany
writing desk, while Fanny Price, or Emma
Woodhouse, or Anne Elliot, was growing into
beauty and interest. I have no doubt," he adds,
" that I and my sisters and cousins, in our visits
to Chawton, frequently disturbed this mystic pro-
cess without having any idea of the mischief that
we were doing ; certainly we never should have
guessed it by any signs of impatience or irrit-
ability in the writer."
This "little mahogany desk" is now treasured
by the family of her nephew and biographer. We
have held it in our hands, and have looked upon
the firm, delicate handwriting of its owner in the
manuscript of " The Watsons " which lies within
its narrow drawer.
We learn from one of Miss Austen's letters that
this desk, with all it contained, had once a narrow
escape of being lost. It happened in the autumn
of 1798, when Jane and her parents were halting
for a nio-ht at the " Bull and George " at Dartford,
on their way home from Godmersham. Jane
writes to her sister " After we had been here a
172
- &\
D fkM^S^M
PARLOUR IN CHAWTON COTTAGE, WITH JANE AUSTEN S DESK
Settling at Chawton
quarter of an hour it was discovered that my
writing and dressing boxes had been, by accident,
put into a chaise which was just packing off as we
came in, and were driven away towards Gravesend
on their way to the West Indies. No part of my
property could have been such a prize before, for
in my writing-box was all my worldly wealth,
seven pounds. . . . Mr. Nottley immediately
despatched a man and horse after the chaise, and
in half an hour's time I had the pleasure of being
as rich as ever ; they were got about two or three
miles off." # Did this adventure, we wonder, befall
the manuscript of " Pride and Prejudice "? If so,
Jane Austen's readers have yet greater reason to
rejoice than even she could have, that the post-
chaise was overtaken in time and the little desk
rescued.
In the larger parlour at Chawton Cottage Jane's
piano must have stood. Her nephew tells us
that she was in the habit of practising daily,
chiefly before breakfast. " She did so, I believe,"
he says, " partly that she might not disturb the
rest of the party who were less fond of music. In
the evening" she would sing to her own accom-
paniment, some simple old songs, the words and
airs of which, now never heard, still linger in my
memory."
A large garden lay behind the house where, we
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
175
Jane Austen
are told, "there was a pleasant, irregular mixture
of hedgerow, and gravel walk, and orchard, and
long grass for mowing, arising from two or three
little enclosures having been thrown together."
" I remember the garden well," writes Miss Lefroy.
" A very high thick hedge divided it from the
(Winchester) road, and round it was a pleasant
shrubbery walk, with a rough bench or two where
no doubt Mrs. Austen and Cassandra and Jane
spent many a summer afternoon."* We have
sat in what was once this " shrubbery walk,"
beneath the shade of great over-arching trees, one
of which, an oak, is said to have been planted by
Jane herself.
Writing to her sister during the month of May
she says : " The whole of the shrubbery border
will soon be very gay with pinks and sweet-
williams, in addition to the columbines already in
bloom. The syringas, too, are coming out. . . .
You cannot imagine— it is not in human nature
to imagine — what a nice walk we have round the
orchard. The rows of beech look very well
indeed, and so does the young quickset hedge in
the garden. I hear to-day that an apricot has
been detected on one of the trees." Was it a
" Moor Park," we wonder, such as Mrs. Norris
and Dr. Grant quarrelled over ?
By the time the family went to live at Chawton,
* Family MSS.
176
Settling at Chawton
Mrs, Austen had handed over the management of
the house-keeping to her daughters. She was
then nearly seventy years of age, but "she found
plenty of occupation for herself," writes Miss
Lefroy, " in gardening and needlework. The
former was, with her, no idle pastime, no mere
cutting of roses and tying up of flowers. She
dug up her own potatoes, and I have no doubt
she planted them, for the kitchen garden was as
much her delight as the flower borders, and I
have heard my mother say that when at work,
she wore a green round frock like a day-
labourer's." #
We have seen a specimen of Mrs. Austen's
needlework, done at this period. It is a large
chintz patchwork counterpane of most elaborate
design. In the centre is a basket of flowers while,
landscapes and flowers adorn the border. A black
silhouette portrait, taken evidently while she was
living at Chawton, enables us to realise the
appearance of this bright, spirited, old lady. In
looking at it we recall Miss Lefroy's remark that
"she was amusingly particular about people's
noses, having a very aristocratic one herself."
"It was a very quiet life [at the cottage],"
writes Miss Lefroy, "according to our ideas, but
they were great readers, and besides the house-
keeping our aunts occupied themselves in work-
* Family MSS.
177 M
Jane Austen
ing for the poor and in teaching some boy or girl
to read or write." When, however, the Edward
Knights were visiting their Chawton home, and
the " Great House " was full of life and anima-
tion, a new source of enjoyment came into Jane's
quiet life. The " Great House " and the cottage
lie within a few hundred yards of each other,
the gates of the park opening upon the Gosport
road. The house, a fine old Elizabethan man-
sion, with its Tudor porch, and its heavy mullioned
windows, may be seen by the passer-by, standing
on rising ground ; while a little below it, in a
gentle hollow, lies the old church of Chawton — a
small grey stone edifice embowered in trees.
We have visited Chawton House, being kindly
welcomed by the present owner — a son of that
"young Edward" of whom his "Aunt Jane"
writes so affectionately from Southampton. A
large wainscoted room (now the drawing-room),
containing a great chimney-piece of carved wood
and stone, was the hall of the mansion in Miss
Austen's time. How many happy meetings of the
children and their loved " Aunt" must its sombre
walls have witnessed ! But the room which is
especially associated with Jane Austen is the
" oak-room " on the first floor, which has a
large recess that stands above the porch. Here
the family often sat of an evening. This room
is unchanged since Miss Austen's day. And
178
MRS. AUSTEN
Settling at Chawton
unchanged also must be the great oaken stair-
case with its massive balustrade leading to dark
mysterious passages, and concealing beneath its
steps a secret hiding-place such as would have
delighted the heart of Catherine Morland.
The interesting family portraits which now hang
in Chawton House hung formerly at Godmersham.
That of Edward Austen (afterwards Knight) was
taken in Rome, whither he had gone when
making the "grand tour" at the age of twenty-
one. When looking at this portrait we can well
imagine that the original " was not only a very
amiable man, kind and indulgent to all con-
nected with him," but that he " possessed also a
spirit of fun and liveliness which made him
especially delightful to all young people."* The
portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Knight
(who adopted Edward), painted by Romney,
are fine works of art. Mr. Knight died in
1794, but we find frequent mention in the
" Letters " of Mrs. Knight, to whom Jane was
much attached.
The windows at the back of the mansion over-
look rising lawns dotted about with gay flower
borders. At the top of the ascent there is a
large old-fashioned kitchen garden, where fruit
trees, vegetables, and flowers consort happily
together, and where a turf walk, flanked by
* " Memoir," by J. E. Austen-Leigh.
181
Jane Austen
hedges of dahlias, sunflowers, and white Japanese
anemones, with a sun-dial in its centre, leads
up to a yew arbour. How often must Miss
Austen have sat in that arbour enjoying the
sights around her !
IMP'?
CHAPTER XVII
CHAWTON
"Nor Fame I slight, nor for her favours call;
She comes unlooKdfor, if she comes at all"
Soon after the family were settled at Chawton,
Miss Jane Austen began to revise her earlier
novels for the press, and in the spring of 1 8 1 1 we
find her already occupied with correcting the proof
sheets of " Sense and Sensibility." In the month
of April she paid a visit to her brother Henry in
London, and she writes to her sister Cassandra,
who evidently supposed she might be too busy
with London engagements to think much of her
book in the printer's hands, " No, indeed, I am
never too busy to think of S. and S. I can no
more forget it than a mother can forget her suck-
ing child and I am much obliged to you for your
inquiries. I have had two sheets to correct, but
the last only brings us to Willoughby's first appear-
ance. Mrs. K. # regrets, in the most flattering
manner, that she must wait till May, but I have
* Mrs. Thomas Knight.
183
Jane Austen
scarcely a hope of its being out in June. Henry
does not neglect it ; he has hurried the printer,
and says he will see him again to-day. ... I am
very much gratified by Mrs. K.'s interest in it.
... I think she will like my Elinor, but cannot
build on anything else."
" Sense and Sensibility " was published in the
course of this same year ( 1 8 1 1 ). From the
accompanying facsimile of the title-page of the
first edition, it will be seen that the work was
" Printed for the Author, by C. Roworth, Bell-
yard, Temple-bar, and published by T. Egerton,
Whitehall." It is evident, therefore, that the
publisher would take no risk in the transaction
and that the novel was produced at the author's
expense. It is the only one of the novels so
published, for on the title-pages of " Pride and
Prejudice " and of " Mansfield Park " we find the
words " Printed for T. Egerton," and on those of
the later novels " Printed for John Murray."
The reader will notice that the novel is announced
simply as "By a Lady." These words never
again appeared on any title-page of Jane Austen's
works. In its later editions, " Sense and Sensi-
bility " is announced as "by the Author of ' Pride
and Prejudice,' " and when " Pride and Prejudice "
itself first appeared it was announced as " By the
Author of ' Sense and Sensibility.' '
Mr. Austen Leigh tells us that he had " no
184
SENSE
AND
SENSIBILITY.
A NOVEL.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
BY A LADY.
VOL. I.
Honfcon:
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR,
By C. BotfwrrA, Bill-yard, TrmpU-bcr,
AND PUBLISHED BY T. EGERTOX. WHITEHALL
1811.
Chawton
record of the publication of ' Sense and Sensi-
bility,' "and in a letter dated November 1813, Jane
remarks to her sister "Your tidings of S. and S.
give me pleasure, I have never seen it advertised."
We have been fortunate enough to discover an
announcement of its publication in a copy of
the Edinburgh Review for November 18 12. It
appears under the heading of "Novels" in the
"Quarterly List of New Publications from July
to November." The following is a facsimile of
the entry.
NOVELS.
Traits of Nature. By Miss Burnev. 5 vol. 1/. 10s.
I'll Consider of It. A Tale. 3 vol. 21s.
Pleasant Adventures of Gusraan of Alfarache, from the Spanish.
3 vol. 15s.
Bouverie, or the Pupil of the World. 5 vol. 1/. 7s. 6d.
The Loyalists. By Mrs West. 3 vol. 21s.
Self-indulgence; a Tale of the 19th Century. 2 vol. 12s.
Friends Unmasked, or Scenes in Real Life; founded on facts.
By Miss A. A. Hutchinson. 3 voL 12mo. 20s.
Cottage Sketches, or Active Retirement. 2 vol. 9s.
Raphael, or Peaceful Life. By Mr Green, 2 vol. 10s.
Edgeworth's Tales of Fashionable Life. Vol. 4, 5, 6. 21s.
Sense and Sensibility. By a Lady. 3 vol. 15s.
Things by their Right Names. By A Person without a Name.
2voL
Notoriety, or Fashionables Unveiled. 3 vol. 18s.
The Serious Family, or What do You think of the World. 3 vol.
18s.
I says, says I. By Thinks I to Myself. 2 vol. 10s, 6d.
It is interesting to see that the announcement
which immediately precedes that of " Sense and
Sensibility" is of vols, iv., v., and vi. of Miss
Edgeworth's "Tales of Fashionable Life," which
187
Jane Austen
include her delightful story of the "Absentee,"
while in the same list we find the " Loyalists" by
Mrs. West. Jane, writing playfully to a niece in
1 8 14, remarks : " I am quite determined not to be
pleased with Mrs. West's ' Alicia de Lacy,' should
I ever meet with it, which I hope I shall not. I
think I can be stout against anything written by
Mrs. West. I have made up my mind to like no
novels really but Miss Edgeworth's, yours and
my own."
Another entry in the above list is that of
"Traits of Character," by Miss Burney ; not, of
of course, Fanny Burney, who became Madame
D'Arblay in 1793, but a Miss S. S. Burney.
She had previously written a novel called
" Clarentine." "We are reading 'Clarentine,"
Jane wrote in 1807, "and are surprised to find
how foolish it is. ... It is full of unnatural con-
duct and forced difficulties, without striking merit
of any kind."
Under the heading " Poetry," in this same
quarterly " List of New Publications," we find
"Tales. By G. Crabbe. 8vo, 12s." Miss Austen
" thoroughly enjoyed Crabbe," her nephew tells
us, " perhaps on account of a certain resemblance
to herself in minute and highly-finished detail."
In No. XL. of the Edinburgh Review y the same
which contains the foregoing announcements, ap-
pears Lord Jeffrey's critique upon the " Rejected
Chawton
Addresses," which had just taken the public by
surprise. There is an allusion to that work in one
of the " Letters." A Mrs. having observed
that she had sent a copy of the " Rejected Ad-
dresses " to a friend, Jane writes : "I began
talking to her a little about them, and expressed
my hope of their having amused her. Her answer
was ' Oh dear, yes, very much ; very droll indeed ;
the opening of the house and the striking up of
the fiddles ! ' What she meant, poor woman, who
shall say ? "
" Pride and Prejudice " was published early in
1813. Jane Austen writes to her sister from
Chawton, January 29 : "I hope you received my
little parcel by J. Bond* on Wednesday evening,
my dear Cassandra, and that you will be ready to
hear from me again on Sunday, for I feel that I.
must write to you again to-day. I want to tell
you that I have got my own darling child from
London. On Wednesday I received one copy
sent down by Falkener, with three lines from
Henry to say that he had given another to Charles
and sent a third by the coach to Godmersham.
. . . The advertisement is in our paper to-day for
the first time : iSs. He shall ask £1 is. for my
two next, and £1 Ss. for my stupidest of all.
Miss B. dined with us on the very day of the
* The old servant and factotum of her father in the Steventon
days.
189
\J
Jane Austen
book's coming out, and in the evening we fairly set
at it, and read half the first vol. to her, prefacing
that, having intelligence from Henry that such a
work would soon appear, we had desired him to
send it whenever it came out, and I believe it
passed with her unsuspected. She was amused,
poor soul ! That she could not help, you know,
with two such people to lead the way, but she
really does seem to admire Elizabeth. I must
confess that I think her as delightful a creature as
ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to
tolerate those who do not like her at least, I do
not know. ... I am exceedingly pleased that
you can say what you do, after having gone
through the whole work, and Fanny's praise is
very gratifying. My hopes were very strong of
her but nothing like a certainty. Her liking
Darcy and Elizabeth is enough. She might
hate all the others if she would. I have her
opinion under her own hand this morning, but
your transcript of it, which I had first, was not,
and is not, the less acceptable. To me it is, of
course, all praise, but the more exact truth which
she sends you is good enough." #
Shortly after this letter was written we find
Jane, when on a visit to her brother Henry, in
London, looking out for portraits in the picture
galleries, that may bear some resemblance to her
* " Memoir," by J. E. Austen- Leigh.
190
Ml
till «
CHAWTOX HOUSE
Chawton
ideal characters. " Henry and I," she writes,
" went to the Exhibition in Spring Gardens. It
is not thought a good collection, but I was very-
well pleased, particularly (pray tell Fanny) with a
small portrait of Mrs. Bingley, excessively like
her. I went in hopes of seeing one of her sister,
but there was no Mrs. Darcy. Perhaps, however,
I may find her in the great exhibition, which we
shall go to if we have time. I have no chance of
her in the collection of Sir Joshua Reynolds's
paintings, which is now showing in Pall Mall, and
which we are also to visit.
" Mrs. Bingley is exactly herself — size, shaped
face, features and sweetness ; there never was a
greater likeness. She is dressed in a white gown
with green ornaments, which convinces me of
what I always supposed, that green was a favourite
colour with her. I daresay Mrs. D. will be in
yellow." Finishing her letter later in the day she
adds : " We have been both to the exhibition and
to Sir Joshua Reynolds's, and I am disappointed,
for there was nothing like Mrs. D. at either. I
can only imagine that Mr. D. prizes any picture
of her too much to like it should be exposed to
the public eye. I can imagine he would have
that sort of feeling — that mixture of love, pride
and delicacy."*
Apropos of " Pride and Prejudice" a question
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
191
Jane Austen
has arisen as to whether Mr. Collins had a proto-
type in a certain Bishop Porteus, who held the
living of Hunton, in Kent, towards the close of the
eighteenth century. This pompous divine has
left private " Reminiscences," in which we are
told the "diction, manner, and matter" are
simply those of Mr. Collins himself. It is quite
possible that Miss Austen may have heard anec-
dotes of his sayings and doings when visiting her
brother in Kent, and that these suggested to her
mind the portraiture of some such character as
his. But we know beyond a doubt that she
"drew from nature but never from individuals";
therefore the existence of Dr. Porteus only
proves that in the delineation of Mr. Collins,
which has been termed "one of the most distinct
and original portraits in the great gallery of
fiction," she was no caricaturist, but a faithful
student of nature.
When "Pride and Prejudice" appeared before
the public, its author was already far advanced
in the composition of "Mansfield Park." Here is
an allusion to the story in a letter dated February,
1813, written at Chawton. After describing a
rather dull party at which she had been present,
Miss Austen goes on to say, " As soon as a
whist party was formed, and a round table
threatened, I made my mother an excuse, and
came away, leaving just as many for their round
192
Chawton
table as there were at Mrs. Grant's. I wish they
might be as agreeable a set."
Who does not call to mind the players at
"Speculation" gathered round Mrs. Grant's table
when Henry Crawford, "pre-eminent in all the
lively turns, quick resources, and playful impud-
ence that could do honour to the game," was
directing the play of both Fanny and Lady
Bertram, trying to inspire the one with "avarice
and harden her heart (which where William was
concerned was a difficult matter), and to prevent
the other from ever looking at her cards."
In March 1814 we find Jane reading " Mans-
field Park" for the first time to her brother
Henry, as they were seated together in a post-
chaise on their way to London. She writes on
the following day to her sister, " We had alto-
gether a very good journey, and everything at
Cobham was comfortable. . . . We did not begin
reading till Bentley Green. Henry's approbation
is hitherto even equal to my wishes. He says it
is different from the other two. but does not appear
to think it at all inferior. He has only married
Mrs. R. I am afraid he has gone through the
most entertaining part. He took to Lady B. and
Mrs. N. most kindly, and gives great praise to the
drawing of the characters. He understands them
all, likes Fanny, and I think, foresees how it will
all be. . . . He admires H. Crawford : I mean
193 N
Jane Austen
properly, as a clever, pleasant man. I tell you all
the good I can as I know how much you will
enjoy it."
As time passed on Miss Austen enjoyed a new
pleasure in the more equal companionship of her
elder nephews and nieces, who were now growing
up. The removal to Chawton had brought her
within easy reach of her brother James and his
family, who were still at Steventon, as well as of
the Knights when they visited their Chawton
home.
Miss Lefroy, a grand-daughter of the Rev.
James Austen, writes,* " As may be supposed a
great deal of intercourse was kept up between
Steventon and Chawton. Our grandfather was a
most attentive son, and one of the pleasures of my
mother's youth was sometimes riding with him to
see her grandmother and aunts through the pretty
cross roads and rough lanes, inaccessible to wheels,
which lay between the two places. ... In her
Aunt Jane, who was the object of her most en-
thusiastic admiration, she found a sympathy and a
companionship which was the delight of her girl-
hood, and of which she always retained the most
grateful remembrance. ... But I will copy my
mother's own account.
"'The two years before my marriage and the
three afterwards, during which we lived near
- ;: Family MSS.
194
Chawton
Chawton, were the years in which my great inti-
macy with her was formed ; when the original seven-
teen years between us seemed reduced to seven,
or none at all. It was my amusement during part
of a summer visit to the cottage to procure novels
from the circulating library at Alton, and after
running them over to narrate and turn into
ridicule their stories to Aunt Jane, much to her
amusement, as she sat over some needlework
which was nearly always for the poor. We both
enjoyed the fun, as did Aunt Cassandra in her
quiet way though, as one piece of nonsense led to
another, she would exclaim at our folly, and beg us
not to make her lau^h so much.' '
" To some of that ' nonsense ' the following letter
from Aunt Jane refers. # She and my mother
had been lauo-hino; over a most tiresome novel,
in eight volumes, by a Mrs. Hunter, containing
story within story, and in which the heroine
was always in floods of tears."
" Miss Jane Austen begs her best thanks may
be conveyed to Mrs. Hunter, of Norwich, for the
thread paper she has been so kind as to send by
Mrs. Austen, and which will be always very
valuable on account of the spirited sketches (made
doubtless by Nicholson or Glover) of those most
interesting spots, Fairfield Hall, the Mill, and,
f It is needless to say that this letter never found its way to the
post.
195
Jane Austen
above all, the tomb of Howard's wife, of which
Miss Jane Austen is undoubtedly a good judge,
having spent so many summers at Fairfield Abbey,
the delighted guest of the worthy Mrs. Wilson.
It is impossible for any likeness to be more com-
plete. Miss J. A.'s tears have flowed over each
sweet sketch in such a way as would have done
Mrs. Hunter's heart good to see, and if she could
understand all Miss Austen's interest in the
subject she would certainly have the kindness to
publish at least four more volumes about the Hint
family, and especially would give many further
particulars in that part of it which Mrs. Hunter
has hitherto handled too briefly — viz., the history
of Mary Hint's marriage with Howard.
" Miss Jane Austen cannot close this small
epitome of the miniature of an abridgment of her
thanks and admiration without expressing her
sincere hope that Mrs. Hunter is provided with
a more safe conveyance to London than Alton
can now boast ; as the ' Car of Falkenstein,' the
pride of that town, was overturned within the last
ten days."
196
VIEW FROM CHAWTOX COTTAGE
CHAPTER XVIII
GODMERSHAM
" Where the deer rustle through the twining brake."
Godmersham Park, in Kent, where her brother
Edward and his family lived, was almost a second
home to Miss Jane Austen as well as to her sister
Cassandra. Jane had been warmly attached to
Edward's wife, and the death of her sister-in-law
increased her devotion to her beloved brother and
to his motherless children.
Godmersham Park lies in a wooded, undulating-
country about eight miles south-west of Canter-
bury, and is watered by the pretty river Stoure.
The house, a long, low building of white stone with
two wings, has a wide portico supported by
columns. We have passed through this stately
entrance, by the kind permission of the present
owner, and have sat in the rooms where Jane sat,
looking, as she must have looked, upon the sunny,
green slopes of the park where deer were feeding
beneath shady trees. A great, square hall occu-
pies the centre of the mansion, rich in carved
x 97
Jane Austen
doorways which are flanked by white pilasters
and surmounted by pediments.
Writing from Godmersham to her sister in 1813,
Jane describes the arrival of her sailor brother,
Charles, accompanied by his wife and their two
children, and tells how they were met and wel-
comed in this hall. " They came last evening at
about seven," she says. " We had given them
up, but / still expected them. . . . They had a
very rough passage. . . . However, here they
are, safe and well, just like their own nice selves ;
Fanny looking as neat and white this morning as
possible, and dear Charles all affectionate, placid,
quiet, cheerful, good humour . . . Cassy was too
tired and bewildered just at first to seem to know
anybody. We met them in the hall — the women
and girl part of us — but before we reached the
library, she kissed me very affectionately. . . .
It was quite an evening of confusion, as you may
suppose. At first we were all walking about from
one part of the house to the other ; then came a
fresh dinner in the breakfast-room which Fanny
and I attended ; then we moved into the library,
were joined by the dining-room people, were intro-
duced and so forth ; and then we had tea and coffee
which was not over till past ten. Billiards again
drew all the odd ones away, and Edward, Charles,
the two Fannies, and I, sat snugly talking."
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
198
#
HALL IX GODMERSHAM HOUSE
Godmersham
We can picture to ourselves this happy group
seated in the library, whose walls are of wainscot,
painted white with large and richly framed panels,
then filled by the family portraits.
The drawing-room lies at the back of the house.
It is a long room with windows down to the ground
that overlook flower beds and green lawns which
terminate in a long ascending glade on the side of
a wooded hill. Here Jane sat writing to her
sister one November day : "I am all alone —
Edward is gone into his woods. At this present
time I have five tables, eight-and-twenty chairs,
and two fires all to myself."
With the children of the family " Aunt Jane"
was always the centre of attraction. " She was
the one to whom we always looked for help,"
writes a niece. " She could make everything
amusing to a child. . . She would tell us the most
delightful stories, chiefly of Fairyland, and her
fairies had all characters of their own. The tale
was invented, I am sure, at the moment and was
continued for two or three days if occasion re-
quired — being begged for on all possible and
impossible occasions. " # Sometimes she com-
posed impromptu verses for their entertainment.
She is described as "standing in one of the win-
dows at Godmersham when awaiting the arrival
of her brother Frank, and his newly-married wife,
:;: " Memoir," by J. E. Austen- Leigh.
199
Jane Austen
allaying the impatience of the little nephews and
nieces, watching with her, by a poetical account of
the bride and bridegroom's journey from Canter-
bury ; the places they passed through, the drive
through the park, and the arrival, at last, at the
house."
Several members of the Austen family besides
Jane were endowed with this faculty of invention
— a faculty termed by Mrs. Austen "sprack wit."
They often wrote amusing charades to enliven
their evening gatherings, when " merry verses and
happy, careless inventions of the moment would
flow without difficulty from their ready pens."
Some of these " charades " have been collected
and printed for private circulation. We are per-
mitted to give two of them. The first is by Jane
Austen's father. Its solution is unknown but
perhaps some ingenious reader of these pages
may be able to discover it.
" Without me, divided, fair ladies, I ween,
At a ball or a concert you'll never be seen ;
You must do me together, or safely I'd swear,
Whatever your carriage you'll never get there."
The second is by Jane herself.
" When my first is a task to a young girl of spirit
And my second confines her to finish the piece,
How hard is her fate ! but how great is her merit
If by taking my whole she effect her release ! "
(Hemlock.)
200
-..■■
\
^; »
A YOUNG GIRL OF SPIRIT'
Godmersham
Sometimes the evenings at Godmersham were
passed in listening to the reading of some notable
book. It was in June 1808, just four months
after " Marmion " had appeared before the public,
that Jane wrote : " Ought I to be very much
pleased with ' Marmion ' ? As yet I am not.
James # reads it aloud in the evening — the short
evening beginning at ten, and broken by supper."
But a further acquaintance with the poem made
her change her opinion, for writing a few months
later of sending out a worked rug to her brother
Charles in the West Indies, she remarks : " I am
going to send ' Marmion ' out with it — very
generous in me I think."
Miss Austen often mentions " Sackree," the
children's nurse and a general favourite. " I told
Sackree," she writes to her sister, " that you
desired to be remembered to her which pleased
her ; and she sends her duty and wishes you to
know that she has been into the great world.
She went on to town after taking William to
Eltham, and, as well as myself, saw the ladies go
to Court on the 4th. She had the advantage,
indeed, of me in being in the Palace."f
Sackree " lived on at Godmersham " Lord
Brabourne tells us, " saw and played with many
of the children of her nurslings, and died in 1851
* He was then staying at Godmersham.
f " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
201
Jane Austen
in her ninetieth year." We have seen her grave
in the pretty churchyard of Godmersham village
church, where she is described as " the faithful
servant and friend, for nearly sixty years, of
Edward Knight, of Godmersham Park, and the
beloved nurse of his children."
One of Miss Austen's little nieces living to old
age has only recently passed away — Miss Mari-
anne Knight. A cousin of a younger generation,
to whom the old lady used to talk of her early
recollections, records the following words of Miss
Knight :
" I remember that when Aunt Jane came to us
at Godmersham she used to bring the MS. of
whatever novel she was writing with her, and
would shut herself up with my elder sisters in one
of the bedrooms to read them aloud. I and the
younger ones used to hear peals of laughter
through the door, and thought it very hard that we
should be shut out from what was so delightful.
I also remember how Aunt Jane would sit quietly
working beside the fire in the library, saying
nothing for a good while, and then would suddenly
burst out laughing, jump up and run across the
room to a table where pens and paper were lying,
write something down, and then come back to the
fire and go on quietly working as before."
When Miss Austen visited Godmersham in
1 8 13, both " Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride
202
'fcJl
omaA •
Godmersham
and Prejudice " had appeared before the public
and much curiosity was felt concerning their
author. ''Oh! I have more sweet flattery from
Miss Sharp," Jane writes playfully. " She is an
excellent kind friend, I am read and admired in
Ireland, too. There is a Mrs. Fletcher, the wife
of a judge, an old lady, and very good and very
clever, who is all curiosity to know about me —
what I am like, and so forth. I am not known to
her by name, however. ... I do not despair of
having my picture in the Exhibition at last —
all white and red, with my head on one side ; or
perhaps I may marry young Mr. D'Arblay. I
suppose in the meantime I shall owe dear Henry
a great deal of money for printing, &c." #
We find mention of much pleasant visiting
among friends and neighbours in the " Letters "
written from Godmersham. Sometimes Jane
spends a few days at Goodnestone with the
Bridges family, the relatives of her brother's wife ;
sometimes a day and night at the " White Friars "
in Canterbury — the home of Mrs. Thomas
Knight after her quitting Godmersham Park.
Writing of a visit to the latter place, Miss Austen
remarks : " It was a very agreeable visit. There
was everything to make it so — kindness, conver-
sation, variety, without care or cost. Mr. Knatch-
bull from Provender, was at the White Friars
::: " Letters,'' Lord Brabourne.
203
Jane Austen
when we arrived and stayed dinner, which with
Harriet, # who came, as you may suppose, in a
great hurry, ten minutes after the time, made our
number six. Mr. K. went away early; Mr. Moore
succeeded him, and we sat quietly working and
talking till ten, when he ordered his wife away
and we adjourned to the dressing-room to eat our
tart and jelly." The next morning Mrs. Knight
"had a sad headache which kept her in bed," but
Jane, after paying some calls, returns to find her
up and better ; " but early as it was — only twelve
o'clock," she continues, "we had scarcely taken
off our bonnets before company came — Lady
Knatchbull and her mother ; and after them
succeeded Mrs, White, Mrs. Hughes, and her
two children, Mr. Moore, Harriet and Louisa, and
John Bridges, with such short intervals between
any as to make it a matter of wonder to me
that Mrs. K. and I should ever have been ten
minutes alone, or have any leisure for comfortable
talk, yet we had time to say a little of everything.
Edward came to dinner, and at eight o'clock he and
I got into the chair, and the pleasures of my visit
concluded with a delightful drive home."
If the engagements did not happen to furnish
much amusement in themselves Miss Austen
managed to eet entertainment out of them in
another way.
- ;: Harriet Bridges, lately married to the Rev. George Moore,
204
\^>*%
- ■£*■*»* ^
^Srh~ . > /tomcu) ^'l/ita/it
Godmersham
" ' 'Tis night ! and the landscape is lovely no
more,' " she writes, " but to make amends for that,
our visit to the Tyldens is over. My brother,
Fanny, Edward, and I went ; George stayed at
home with W. K. There was nothing entertain-
ing or out of the common way. We met only
Tyldens and double Tyldens. A whist-table for
the gentlemen, a grown-up musical young lady to
play at backgammon with Fanny, and engravings
of the colleges at Cambridge for me. . . . Lady
Elizabeth Hatton and Anna Maria called here
this morning. Yes, they called ; but I do not
think I can say anything more about them. They
came, and they sat, and they went."
" It seems now quite settled," she writes, " that
we go to Wrotham on Saturday, the 13th (Nov.)
spend Sunday there and proceed to London on
Monday. I like the plan. I shall be glad to see
Wrotham." *
The Rev. George Moore was Rector of the
beautiful village of Wrotham which lies among
the western Kentish hills. His wife was a sister-
in-law of Edward Knight. We like to fancy
Jane attending service in the fine old church on
the village green or, perhaps, climbing Wrotham
hill to trace the line of the old Pilgrims' route as
it winds along the valley marked by its dark yew
trees.
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
CHAPTER XIX
LONDON
" The flood of human life in motion?
Miss Jane Austen's acquaintance with London
began at an early date, as she frequently passed a
few days there when journeying between Hamp-
shire and Kent.
We have mentioned her sleeping at an inn in
Cork Street in 1 796. Most of the coaches from
the south and west of England set down their
passengers, it seems, at the " White Horse
Cellar" in Piccadilly, which stood near to the
entrance of what is now the Burlington Arcade.
Jane and her brothers, therefore, probably
alighted here and they would find Cork Street,
immediately behind the " White Horse Cellar,"
a convenient place for their lodging. The
Bristol Hotel, whose name suggests its con-
nection with the west, was probably their inn.
" Sense and Sensibility " was, as yet, unwritten
in 1796, and we can imagine the future author
taking note of the various localities in the neigh-
206
London
bourhood which she afterwards introduced into
her story. Sackville Street is close by, in which
she placed the shop of Mr. Gray, the jeweller at
whose counter Elinor and Marianne were kept
waiting whilst the coxcomb Robert Ferrars was
giving elaborate directions for the design of a
toothpick case. " At last the affair was decided.
The ivory, the gold and the pearls, all received
their appointment, and the gentleman having
named the last day on which his existence could
be continued without the possession of the tooth-
pick case, drew on his gloves with leisurely care,
and bestowing a glance on the Miss Dashwoods
which seemed rather to demand, than express,
admiration, walked off with a happy air of real
conceit and affected indifference."
This same Mr. Gray's shop figures in another
well-known novel of the period — namely in the
| Absentee " by Maria Edgeworth. And there
we again meet with a coxcomb — Colonel Heath-
cock, who is playing personage ?nuet whilst his
bride-elect, the Lady Isabel, and her mother,
Lady Dashfort, are " holding consultation deep
with the jeweller."
Mr. Gray, we find, was a real personage, for his
name appears in the London Directory for 1814,
where he is entered as "Mr. Thomas Gray,
jeweller, 41, Sackville Street, Piccadilly."
Near at hand is Conduit Street, where the
Jane Austen
Middletons lodged, and, at no very great distance h
Berkeley Street, leading out of Portman Square,
where Mrs. Jennings' house stood in which Elinor
and Marianne visited her. The Miss Steeles, we
remember, stayed in a less elegant part of the
town — namely in Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn.
These Buildings are still to be seen, forming
quaint alley of dark brick houses with pedi-
mented doorways and white window-frames. We
have looked up at the windows and wondered
behind which of them Edward Ferrars had his
momentous interview with the avaricious Lucy,
while her sister Nancy made " no bones " oi
listening at the keyhole to their conversation.
In 181 1 Miss Jane Austen was in town, visiting
her brother Henry and his wife in Sloane Street.
Henry had married his widowed cousin, Madame
de Feuillade, who, the reader may remember,
was much at Steventon parsonage during Jane's
girlhood. A few years later Miss Austen was
visiting her brother in Hans Place, a turning out
of Sloane Street. All that district then formed a
rural suburb of London.
Miss Mitford, who has so often helped us to
realise the surroundings of Jane Austen, comes to
our aid again here. She is describing the view
of London, as seen a few years earlier, from the
top of St. Paul's : — "I saw," she says, "a compact
city, spreading along the river it is true, from
208
Lond
on
Billingsgate to Westminster, but clearly defined
to the north and to the south ; the West End
beginning at Hyde Park Corner, and bordered
'•"•■ I WW'
■mi in ii i/|*i "?'ff^*.Vi, l » .
, (I'lmnriVrti.
'/A A A »■ S^jfewJ':--
*e~ >■ l!
BARTLETT S BUILDINGS. HOLBORN
by Hyde Park on the one side and the Green
Park on the other. . . . Belgravia was a series of
pastures, and Paddington a village." And we
are also told " that Hans Place" was then " nearly
surrounded by fields." Miss Austen, indeed, in a
209 o
Jane Austen
letter written from Sloane Street, speaks of
"walking into London" to do her shopping.
Jane saw much pleasant society while visiting
the Henry Austens. She writes from Sloane
Street of an evening party which had taken place
on a certain Tuesday in April : " Our party went
off extremely well. The rooms were dressed up
with flowers, &c, and looked very pretty. . . .
At half-past seven arrived the musicians in two
hackney coaches and by eight the lordly company
began to appear. Among the earliest were
George and Mary Cooke, and I spent the greatest
part of the evening very pleasantly with them.
The drawing-room being soon hotter than we
liked, we placed ourselves in the connecting
passage, which was comparatively cool, and gave
us all the advantage, of the music at a pleasant
distance, as well as that of the first view of every
new comer. I was quite surrounded by acquaint-
ance, especially gentlemen."
We are told that the music was " extremely
good " and that it " included the glees of ' Rosa-
belle,' 'The Red Cross Knight,' and 'Poor
Insect' " The " harp-player was Wiepart," Jane
writes, " whose name seems famous though new
to me." There was one female singer, " a short
Miss Davis, all in blue, bringing up for the
public line, whose voice was said to be very fine
indeed."
210
Lond
on
We hear of an evening spent with some French
emigres — the D'Entraigues and Count Julien,
friends of " Eliza" (Mrs. Henry Austen) and we
learn that " Monsieur, the old Count" was " a
very fine-looking man with quiet manners " and
was evidently "a man of great information and
taste." " He has some fine paintings," Jane
remarks, " which delighted Henry ; and among
them a miniature of Philip V. of Spain,
Louis XIV. 's grandson, which exactly suited ??ty
capacity. Count J ulien's [musical] performance is
very wonderful."*
Mrs. Henry Austen died in 1813, and the
house in Sloane Street was soon afterwards given
up. Henry was at that time a partner in Tilson's
Bank, which stood in Henrietta Street, Covent
Garden, and he probably had rooms at the bank
for there his sister Jane and their niece Fanny
Knight visited him in the spring of 18 14.
In the early summer of that year Jane was at
Chawton again, and her sister Cassandra was in
town. This was during an exciting time in London,
for the Allies, having just established Louis XVI 1 1,
on his throne, were meeting together in London for
a Thanksgiving service at St. Paul's, to be followed
by a series of grand fetes and entertainments.
Jane writes to her sister on the 13th of June :
" Take care of yourself, and do not be trampled to
* '* Letters," Lord Brabourne.
211
Jane Austen
death in running after the Emperor. The report
in Alton yesterday was that they would certainly
travel this road either to or from Portsmouth."
Amongst the Allies the Emperor Alexander (of
Russia) was especially popular, and we have heard
from an eye-witness that such was the enthusiasm
of the crowds when he entered London, that they
pressed round him to kiss his horse !
By the month of August Henry Austen had
taken a house in Hans Place, No. 23, whence we
find Jane writing to her sister, "It is a delightful
place — more than answers my expectation," and
she goes on to speak in praise of the garden.
At the very next house, No. 22, was the school,
already mentioned in these pages, which had
been started by Monsieur and Madame St,
Quintin as a successor to the Reading Abbey
School. There, as we have seen, Miss Mitford
received her education, and there she frequently
returned for visits in after life. From her we
learn that the school had a good garden behind
it adjoining the grounds of a mansion called the
Pavilion ; and from Jane herself we learn that
on the further side there was another garden,
belonging to No. 24, a house in which Mr. Tilson,
of Tilson's Bank, resided.
In the summer of which we are writing Miss
Mitford spent a fortnight in Hans Place, and she
writes to her mother describing a visit to Lady
London
Charlotte Dennis's grounds belonging to the
Pavilion whose entrance gates were in Hans
Place. "What do you think," she asks, "of a
dozen different ruins, half a dozen pillars, ditto
urns, ditto hermitages, ditto grottoes, ditto rocks,
HOUSES IN HANS PLACE
ditto fortresses, ditto bridges, ditto islands, ditto
live bears, foxes and deer, with statues wooden,
leaden, bronze, and marble past all count ?
What do you think of all this crammed into a
space of about ten acres, and at the back of Hans
Place ? It is really incredible. Mr. Dubster's
villa is nothing to it." There is an allusion, by
Jane Austen
the way, to this same Mr. Dubster (a character in
Fanny Burney's " Camilla ") and to his summer
house in one of Miss Austen's early letters.
We hear of frequent visits to the theatre in
the " Letters " from London. Jane goes with her
brother and her niece Fanny to see " Mr. Kean
in ' Shylock ' at Drury Lane," and writes after-
wards to her sister, " I shall like to see Kean
again excessively, and to see him with you too.
It appeared to me as if there were no fault in him
anywhere ; and in his scene with ' Tubal ' there
was exquisite acting." She tells us that she saw
"the new Mr. Terry" as " Lord Ogleby " and
that "Henry thinks he may do" and mentions
Young in "Richard III." at Covent Garden.
" We were all at the play last night," she writes,
"to see Miss O'Neil in ' Isabella.' I do not think
she is quite equal to my expectations. I fancy I
want something more than can be. I took two
pocket-handkerchiefs but had very little occasion
for either. She is an elegant creature, however.
. . . We went to the Lyceum and saw the
' Hypocrite ' an old play taken from Moliere's
' Tartuffe,' and were well entertained. Dowton
and Mathews were the good actors ; . . . I have
no chance of seeing Mrs. Siddons. ... I should
particularly have liked seeing her in ' Constance.' '
Sometimes when the younger children from God-
mersham happen to be in town " Aunt Jane "
214
London
takes them to see a play. " They revelled last
night," she writes, " in ' Don Juan.' . . . We had
scaramouch and a ghost, and were delighted."
Apropos of London shopping, Jane speaks of
having some "superfluous wealth" to spend. Was
it, we wonder, from the proceeds of "Sense and Sen-
sibility " ? "I hope," she writes to her sister, " that
I shall find some poplin at Layton and Shear's
that will tempt me to buy it. If I do it shall be
sent to Chawton, as half will be for you ; for I
depend upon your being so kind as to accept it . . .
It will be a great pleasure to me. Don't say a
word. I only wish you could choose it too. I shall
send twenty yards." # Layton and Shear's shop, we
find, was at i r, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.
One day Jane orders a cap for herself. " It
will be white satin and lace," she writes, "and a
little white flower perking out of the left ear, like
Harriet Byron's feather." Fanny buys " Irish "
at Newton's in Leicester Square, and stockings at
Remmington's ; " silk at 12s. a pair, and cotton at
45. $d." which are thought to be " great bargains "
— and the aunt and niece choose "net for Anna's
gown at Grafton House," which is so thronged
that they have to wait full half an hour before they
can be attended to, " Edward sitting by all the
time with wonderful patience."
In one of her " Letters " she speaks of going to
:: " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
2tq
Jane Austen
the Liverpool Museum and to the British Gallery.
" I had some amusement at each," she writes,
" though my preference for men and women
always inclines me to attend more to the company
than the sight." Does not this remind us of
Elizabeth Bennet's pleasure in studying character?
In returning home from her expeditions Jane is
sometimes alone in her brother's carriage. " I
liked my solitary elegance very much," she says,
" and was ready to laugh all the time at my being
where I was. I could not but feel that I had
naturally small right to be parading about London
in a barouche." Was she thinking of her own
situation, we wonder, when she made Mrs. Elton
talk of Selina's " being stuck up in the barouche-
landau without a companion " ?
In all the " busy idleness " of her London visits
Miss Austen's mind turned constantly to the
subject of her books. " Lady Robert is delighted
with P. and P.," she writes, " and really was so, as
I understand, before she knew who wrote it, for,
of course she knows now. . . . And Mr. Hastings !
I am quite delighted with what such a man
writes about it. Let me be rational," she exclaims,
"and return to my full stops." And she goes on
to describe her brother Henry's plans concerning
a visit to Chawton. " Mansfield Park," had only
been published a few months when Jane wrote
(Nov. 1 8th, 1 8 14) " You will be glad to hear that
216
London
the first edition of M. P. is all sold." And she
goes on to say that Henry advises her making
arrangements with the publisher for a second
edition.
We hear of a small evening party to be given
in Hans Place whilst Fanny is staying there with
her aunt. After describing the morning engage-
ments, Jane writes : " Then came the dinner and
Mr. Haden, who brought good manners and clever
conversation. From seven to eight the harp ; at
ei^ht Mrs. L. and Miss E. arrived, and for the rest
of the evening the drawing-room was thus arranged:
on the sofa the two ladies, Henry and myself,
making the best of it ; on the opposite side Fanny
and Mr. Haden, in two chairs (I believe, at least,
they had two chairs), talking together uninter-
ruptedly. Fancy the scene ! And what is to be
fancied next ? Why that Mr. H. dines here again
to-morrow. . . . Mr. H. is reading ' Mansfield
Park ' for the first time, and prefers it to P. and
p "#
During a visit to her brother in 1815 Jane was
engaged in correcting the proof sheets of
"Emma." Writing on November 20th she
remarks : " The printers continue to supply me
very well, I am advanced in vol. iii. to my arra-
root, upon which peculiar style of spelling there
is a modest query in the margin." This is, of
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
217
Jane Austen
course, an allusion to Emma's sending the arrow-
root to Jane Fairfax which Jane so promptly
declined.
It was in connection with " Emma" that Miss
Austen received the only distinguished mark of
recognition that ever reached her. Mr. Austen
Leigh tells us : "It happened thus. In the
autumn of 1815 she nursed her brother Henry
through a dangerous fever and slow con-
valescence at his house in Hans Place. He was
attended by one of the Prince Regent's
physicians." Although " her name had never
appeared on a title-page all who cared to know
might easily learn it, and the friendly physician
was aware that his patient's nurse was the author
of ' Pride and Prejudice.' Accordingly he in-
formed her one day that the Prince was a great
admirer of her novels : that he read them often,
and kept a set in every one of his residences."
On hearing that " Miss Austen was staying in
London the Prince had desired Mr. Clarke, the
librarian of Carlton House, to wait upon her.
The next day Mr. Clarke made his appearance,
saying that he had the Prince's instructions to
show her the library and other apartments, and to
pay her every possible attention." During her
visit to Carlton House " Mr. Clarke declared him-
self commissioned to say that if Miss Austen had
any other novel forthcoming she was at liberty to
218
Lond
on
dedicate it to the Prince. Accordingly such a
dedication was immediately prefixed to ' Emma,'
which was at that time in the press."
A pleasant correspondence ensued between
Miss Austen and Mr. Clarke, given in the
" Memoir." In answer to some warm expressions
of admiration for her works, she writes : "I am
too vain to wish to convince you that you have
praised them beyond their merits. My greatest
anxiety is that this fourth work should not
disgrace what was good in the others. ... I am
strongly haunted with the idea that to those
readers who have preferred ' Pride and Prejudice'
it will appear inferior in wit, and to those who
have preferred ' Mansfield Park ' inferior in good
sense."
Mr. Clarke ventured to suggest a subject to be
be treated of in her next work — that of the character
of a clergyman of an enthusiastic turn of mind,
"demurely sad, like Beatie's Minstrel." Jane
modestly declines the proposal declaring that she
could not do justice to his clergyman unless she
possessed a wide acquaintance with classical
literature, "and I think," she concludes, " I may
boast myself to be with all possible vanity, the
most unlearned and uninformed female who ever
dared to be an authoress." But Mr. Clarke was
by no means discouraged, and he proposed another
subject, suggested to his mind by the approaching
219
Jane Austen
marriage of the Princess Charlotte and Prince
Leopold — namely "An historical romance illus-
trative of the august House of Coburg." Again
Jane declines, observing, playfully, " I could not
sit seriously down to write a serious romance
under any other motive than to save my life ; and
if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and
never to relax into laughing at myself or at other
people, I am sure I should be hung before I had
finished the first chapter."
Charlotte Bronte received similar suggestions
and repudiated them with stern eloquence, very
different from Jane Austen's "playful raillery."
Miss Mitford too did not escape from such
counsels, for she was urged to write a poem on
the Battle of Copenhagen, which she promptly
refused to do, declaring that she was " totally
unfit for such an undertaking," and adding, " I do
not think I would write upon it even if I could.
Cobbett # would never forgive me for such an
atrocious offence, and I could not offend him to
please all the poets in the kingdom." The
answers are very characteristic of the three
writers.
* Cobbett was an intimate friend of her father.
CHAPTER XX
CHAWTON
" Her ready fingers plied with equal skill
The needle or the guill."
We will now follow Miss Austen once more to
her Chawton home — the cottage from which all
her works were sent out into the world.
Busy as she is with her own compositions we
find her lending a helping hand to her niece Anna,
who is writing a novel herself — her first effort of
so important a nature. As each chapter is com-
pleted it is forwarded to the kind Aunt for her
advice and criticism, and these, conveyed in letters
to Anna, reveal, though in her own playful way,
many of Miss Austen's serious views as to a right
standard of style and composition. They show us
also, incidentally, how careful she was herself to
be correct in topographical and other statements.
These letters, which have already appeared in
Lord Brabourne's work, have been lent to us in
the MS., and it is from the MS. that we now
quote,
221
Jane Austen
Writing in the early summer of 1814, Jane
thanks her niece for an instalment of her novel
just arrived which "has entertained" her "ex-
tremely." " I read it aloud," she goes on to say,
" to your grandmamma and Aunt Cass, and we
were all very much pleased. ... A few verbal
corrections are all that I feel tempted to make —
the principal of them is a speech of St. Julian
to Lady Helen, which you see I have presumed
to alter. ... I do not like a lover speaking
in the third person ; it is too much like the formal
part of Lord Orville,* and / think it not natural.
If you think differently, however, you need not
mind me." And again she writes : " Let the
Portmans go to Ireland, but as you know nothing
of the manners there you had better not go with
them. You will be in danger of giving false
representations. Stick to Bath and the Foresters.
There you will be quite at home . . . Lyme will
not do. Lyme is towards forty miles from
Dawlish, and would not be talked of there. I
have put Starcross instead. If you prefer Exeter
that would be always safe. [Lady Clanmurray and
her daughter] must be two days going from
Dawlish to Bath. They are nearly one hundred
miles apart.
"... Your Aunt C. does not like desultory
novels, and is rather afraid yours will be too
■■'- The hero of Fanny Burney's " Evalina."
222
Chawton
much so. . . . It will not be so great an objection
to me if it is. I allow much more latitude than
she does, and think nature and spirit cover many
sins of a wandering story.
". . . What can you do with Egerton to increase
the interest for him ? I wish you could contrive
something. . . . Something to carry him myste-
riously away and then (be) heard of at York or
Edinburgh in an old great coat. . . . Devereux
Forester's being ruined by his vanity is extremely
good, but I wish you would not let him plunge
into ' a vortex of dissipation.' I do not object
to the thing, but I cannot bear the expression ; it
is such thorough novel slang, and so old that I
daresay Adam met with it in the first novel he
opened.''
During the time that Anna Austen was occupied
in writing this story she became engaged to be
married to Mr. Benjamin Lefroy, a son of
" Madame" Lefroy, of Ashe, to whom Jane was so
much attached, and who was killed by a fall from
her horse in 1 804.
" St. Julian's history was quite a surprise to
me," Miss Austen writes, " you had not very long
known it yourself I expect; but I have no objection
to make to the circumstance, and it is very well
told. His having been in love with the aunt
gives Cecilia an additional interest with him.
I like the idea — a very proper compliment to an
Jane Austen
aunt ! I rather imagine indeed that nieces are
seldom chosen but out of compliment to some aunt
or another. I daresay Ben was in love with me
once, and would never have thought of you if he
had not supposed me dead of scarlet fever."
" Waverley " had been published in the month
of July of this same year(i8i4), and Miss Austen
writes to her niece in the following September :
" Walter Scott has no business to write novels,
especially good ones. It is not fair. He has
fame and profit enough as a poet, and should
not be taking the bread out of other people's
mouths. I do not like him, and do not mean
to like ' Waverley ' if I can help it — but fear I
must."
It is amusing to see how Jane Austen's woman's
wit enabled her to solve at once the mystery of
the "Great Unknown," when even Scott's most
intimate friends were fairly puzzled. Lord Jeffrey
writes: "Though living in familiar intercourse
with Sir Walter, I need scarcely say that I was
not in the secret of his authorship ; and, in truth,
had no assurance of the fact till the time of its
public promulgation." This promulgation was in
February 1827.
The marriage of Anna Austen and Benjamin
Lefroy took place at Steventon on November 8,
1 8 14. For those who may be interested to hear
how a wedding was conducted nearly ninety years
224
Chawton
ago, we quote a few passages from an account 01
it written by a younger sister of the bride.*
"Weddings were then," she remarks, " usually
very quiet. The old fashion of festivity and
publicity had quite gone by, and was universally
condemned as showing the bad taste of all former
generations. . . . This was the order of the
day.
" The bridegroom came from Ashe, where he
had hitherto lived with his brother (the Rector),
and with him came Mr. and Mrs. Lefroy, and his
other brother, Mr. Edward Lefroy ; Anne Lefroy,
the eldest little girl, was one of the bridesmaids,
and I was the other. We wore white frocks
and had white ribbon in our straw bonnets. . . .
My brotherf came from Winchester that morning,
but was to stay only a few hours. W T e in the
house had a slight early breakfast upstairs, and
between nine and ten the bride, my mother, Mrs.
Lefroy, Anne, and myself were taken to church in
our carriage. All the gentlemen walked." The
bride, who was very pretty, wore, we are told, "a
dress of fine white muslin, and over it a soft silk
shawl, white shot with primrose, with embossed
white-satin flowers, and very handsome fringe,
and on her head a small cap to match, trimmed
with lace."
The writer speaks of the " cold grey light of a
* Family MSS. t Mr. Austen-Leigh.
225 p
Jane Austen
November morning" making its way "through
the narrow windows of the old church." u Mr.
Lefroy," she continues, " read the service, and my
father gave his daughter away. No one was in the
church but ourselves, and no one was asked to
the breakfast, to which we sat down as soon as we
£Ot back. The breakfast was such as best break-
fasts then were. Some variety of bread, hot rolls,
buttered toast, tongue, ham and eggs. The
addition of chocolate at one end of the table
and the wedding-cake in the middle marked the
speciality of the day. . . . Soon after the break-
fast the bride and bridegroom departed. They
had a long day's journey before them to Hendon.
... In the evening the servants had cake and
wine. Such were the wedding festivities at
Steventon in 1814."
In later years a daughter of the bride, comment-
ing upon the extreme simplicity of these " festivi-
ties " observes " when Aunt Jane marries Emma
Woodhouse (the heiress of twenty thousand
pounds) she describes a wedding, which could not
have been very different, and which Mrs. Elton,
no doubt justly, thought very inferior to her own,
and stigmatised as having ' very little white satin,
very few lace veils,' and summed up as being 'a
most pitiful business.' "
Mrs. Benjamin Lefroy did not neglect her
writing upon her marriage as Mrs. Elton did
226
Chawton
her music, but continued to send her MS. as it
progressed to her aunt. Miss Austen writes in
December of the same year (1814) : "I have
been very far from thinking your book an evil, I
assure you. I read it immediately and with great
pleasure. . . . Indeed I think you get on very
fast. I only wish other people of my acquaintance
could compose as rapidly."
But as time went on and the cares of a family
intervened, the story was put aside for a season,
and before it could be resumed the beloved Aunt
had passed away. " With no Aunt Jane to read, to
criticise, and to encourage," writes Mrs. Lefroy's
daughter, "it was no wonder that the MS., every
word of which was so full of her, remained un-
touched. . . . The story was laid by for years,
and then one day, in a fit of despondency, burnt.
I remember," she continues, "sitting on the rug
watching its destruction, amused with the flame
and the sparks which kept bursting out in the
blackened paper. In later years, when I expressed
my sorrow that my mother had destroyed her story
she said she could never have borne to finish it." #
Miss Lefroy tells us that her father and mother,
remained at Hendon until August 18 15, when they
removed to a house called Wyards, near to Alton.
" It was a large farmhouse," she says, " one end
of which was occupied by a sort of bailiff or
* Family MSS.
227
Jane Austen
foreman with his family, and they rented the
remainder. The intercourse between the two
cottages, as we may call them, was almost daily,
and the correspondence between the aunt and
niece nearly ceased."
It happened at this time that Miss Austen was
enjoying the society of several members of her
family : for her brother Edward and his many
children were at the " Great House," whilst
Francis and his family were residing for a while
in Alton — "sweet amiable Frank," as she calls
him. The Captain had recently returned to
England after serving in the eventful campaigns
of the North Sea and Baltic.
Charles was the only brother who was far away.
He had been sent in command of three ships to
the Mediterranean on the escape of Napoleon
from the Isle of Elba. "Thank you," Jane
writes to her sister, " for the sight of dearest
Charles' letter to yourself. How pleasantly and
how naturally he writes ! and how perfect a
picture of his disposition and feelings his style
conveys ! "
When peace was restored, after the battle of
Waterloo, we hear of Captain Charles Austen
waging war against the pirates of the Archipelago,
capturing their vessels and putting an end to
their cruel trade. The following year his ship,
the Phoenix, was wrecked during a hurricane off
228
THE OAK-ROOM IX CHAWTOX HOUSE
Chawton
the coast of Smyrna. The disaster happened near
to Chisnie on February 21 ( 1 8 1 6), and is recorded
in true sailor fashion in the captain's journal,
of which we possess an extract: "At 2 p.m.,"
he writes, " the ship struck on the rocks astern,
it then blowing a gale from the north-east. Hoisted
out boats and cut the masts away. Attempted to
heave the ship off . . . rudder broken and washed
away. . . . The people immediately began to
swim on shore, all the boats being stove. At
4 p.m. a Turk, with a message from the Aga,
came down opposite the ship and inquired for me,
when I landed, sliding down on a top-gallant mast,
which reached from the wreck to the shore.
Thank God, I found that no life had been lost.
Walked to the town with the marine officer and
others, distant a long mile, blowing violently, with
sleet and rain, and very cold. At the house of
Mr. Cortovitch we were received most kindly and
hospitably, in supplying us with clothes, food,
and beds. For the crew I got a large store-house
with fires, bread, and wine. In spite of our
misfortune I slept well."
Whilst all these stirring events were taking
place, Jane was seated at her desk in the little
parlour of Chawton Cottage, writing of Anne
Elliot and of Captain Wentworth. In a letter to
her niece Fanny, dated March 13 (1816), we find
these words : " I will answer your kind questions
229
Jane Austen
more than you expect. ' Miss Catherine ' is put
upon the shelf for the present, and I do not know
that she will ever come out ; but I have a some-
thing ready for publication, which may, perhaps,
appear about a twelvemonth hence. It is short
— about the length of ' Catherine.' This is for
yourself alone." The " something ready for
publication" was, of course, "Persuasion," while
" Catherine " refers to " Northanger Abbey."
We have spoken of Miss Austen's firm, delicate
handwriting. One of her letters lies open before
us. It is indited upon a square sheet of paper,
such as was used in those days, and when
refolded in its neat sharp creases, forms its own
envelope. The writing beneath that part which
makes the flap and takes the seal is very small.
Every inch of space had to be made use of in
order to save " double postage," which was then
charged if a letter consisted of more than one
sheet of paper.
Excellent as Jane's writing is, she herself con-
sidered it very inferior to that of her sister. " I
took up your letter again," she writes, "and was
struck by the prettiness of the hand, so small and
so neat ! I wish I could get as much into a sheet
of paper."
" Jane Austen was successful in everything
that she attempted with her fingers," writes Mr.
Austen Leigh. " None of us could throw spilikins
230
Chawton
in so perfect a circle, or take them off with so
steady a hand. Her performances with the cup-
and-ball were marvellous. She has been known
to catch the ball on the point above a hundred
times in succession." The accompanying drawing
is of an ivory cup-and-ball at Chaw-
ton House, which was there in Miss
Austen's time, and which, therefore,
she must have frequently used.
Her needlework was exquisite. We
have seen a muslin scarf embroidered
by her in satin-stitch, and have held
in our hands a tiny housewife of fairy-
like proportions, which Jane worked
at the age of sixteen as a gift for a
friend. It consists of a narrow strip
of flowered silk, embroidered at the
back, which measures four inches by one and a
quarter, and is furnished with minikin needles
and fine thread. At one end there is a tiny
pocket, containing a slip of paper upon which
are some verses in diminutive handwriting with
the date "Jan y - 1792." The little housewife,
when rolled up, is tied with narrow ribbon.
"Having been never used and carefully preserved,
it is as fresh and bright as when it was first made."
231
NJ
CHAPTER XXI
AN EPISODE IN JANE AUSTEN'S LIFE
" He best can paint them who shall feel them most."
It has been generally assumed by Jane Austen's
numerous critics that, in spite of her Shakes-
pearean power of describing the feelings of lovers,
she had never experienced those feelings herself.
" Friendship," writes Lord Acton, " was enough
for her. In it she, in fact, seems to have found
sufficient tenderness and support to satisfy her
cravings. . . . She sat apart in her rocky tower
and watched the poor souls struggling in the waves
beneath. And her sympathies were not too
painfully engaged, for she knew that it was only
an Ariel's magic tempest, and that no loss of life
was to follow. . . . Accordingly, her view of the
life she described was that of a humorist, but of
a very kindly one."
And Mr. Austin Dobson remarks :. " On the
whole we may assume that Miss Austen had
no definite romance of her own." If "in the
words of the French song, ' L'amour a passe par
232
An Episode in Jane Austen's Life
la,' the marks of his footprints have now been
irretrievably effaced." The writer attributes her
long silence as an author — a silence lasting for
twelve years, and whose cause has puzzled Miss
Austen's biographers, to her disappointment at the
rebuffs she had received from publishers.
Another critic writing upon " Miss Austen and
Miss Mitford," # says : " We are absolutely denied
a love tale in both these lives, which is hard. . . .
No man's existence could be more entirely free
from sentiment. If love is a woman's chief
business then here are two very sweet women who
had no share in it. It is a want, but we have no
right to complain. . . . Such a question, it is un-
necessary to say, could not have been discussed by
a contemporary, but the critic at this distance may
be permitted to regret that there is not somewhere,
a faded bunch of violets or some dead forget-me-
nots, to be thrown with the myrtle and the bay of
their country's appreciation, upon these two
maiden graves."
But the same critic has the insight to perceive
that between the composition of the first three
novels, and the last three " some softening influ-
ence " had come over the writer. "It is not," he
says, " that the force is less or the keenness of
insight into all the many manifestations of foolish-
ness, but human sympathy has come in to
:: Blackwood's Magazine for March 1870.
233
Jane Austen
sweeten the tale, and the brilliant intellect has
found out somehow that all the laughable things
surrounding it — beings so amusingly diverse in
their inanity and unreason — are all the same
mortal creatures with souls and hearts within
them. How Miss Austen came to find this out
we cannot tell. But it is pleasant to see that she
made the discovery. In 'Emma ' everything has
a softer touch. The sun shines as it never shone
over the Bennets."
In an article by Miss Lefroy that appeared in
" Temple Bar " some years ago the writer tells us
that a large number of Miss Austen's letters,
dealing with matters of a private nature, were
burnt after her death. She goes on to say :
" With all the playful frankness of her manner,
her sweet sunny temper and enthusiastic nature,
Jane Austen was a woman most reticent as to her
own deepest and holiest feelings ; and her sister
Cassandra would have thought she was sinning
against that delicacy and reserve had she left
behind her any record of them. . . . That, on
the contrary, it was her duty to the public to pre-
serve whatever could throw any light on her
sister's life and character never occurred to
her. . . . We feel ourselves aggrieved that we
have lost so much, but if Jane Austen had been
asked she would undoubtedly have approved of her
sister's conduct."
234
An Episode in Jane Austen's Life
In spite of " scanty materials," however, Miss
Lefroy has recorded, upon carefully weighed
evidence, an episode in her Aunt Jane's life, which
must be deeply interesting to all who admire and
love Miss Austens works. This episode, but
faintly alluded to heretofore by the biographers, is
recounted in some family papers from which we
are allowed to quote.
" The Austens with their two daughters, were
once travelling in Devonshire," writes Miss
Lefroy, " moving from place to place ; and I
think that tour was before they left Steventon in
1 80 1, perhaps as early as 1798 or 1799. It was
whilst they were so travelling, according to Annt
Cassandra's account, given many years after-
wards, that they somehow made acquaintance with
a gentleman of the name of Blackall (a clergy-
man). He and Aunt Jane mutually attracted
each other, and such were his charms that even
Aunt Cassandra thought him worthy of her sister.
They parted on the understanding that he was to
come to Steventon, but instead came, I know not
how long after, a letter from his brother to say that
he was dead. There is no record of Jane's
affliction, but I think the attachment must have
been very deep. Aunt Cassandra herself had so
warm a regard for him that some years after her
sister's death, she took a good deal of trouble to
find out and see his brother." [This brother was
235
Jane Austen
a medical man, whose acquaintance the Austens
had also made in Devonshire.]
Miss Lefroy here gives the following extract
from a letter written by her aunt Caroline Austen.
" I have no doubt that Aunt Jane was
beloved of several in the course of her life, and
was herself very capable of loving. I wish I
could give you more details as to Mr. Blackall.
All that I know is this. At Newtown Aunt
Cassandra was staying with us when we made
the acquaintance of a certain Mr. Henry
Edridge of the Engineers. He was very pleas-
ing and very good looking. My aunt was
much struck with him, and / was struck by her
commendations, as she rarely admired any one.
Afterwards she spoke of him as of one so un-
usually gifted with all that was agreeable, and
said he had reminded her strongly of a gentleman
they had met one summer when they were by the
sea (I think she said in Devonshire), who had
seemed greatly attracted by my Aunt Jane. That
when they parted he was urgent to know where
they would be the next summer, implying, or,
perhaps, saying that he should be there also,
wherever it might be. I can only say the impres-
sion left on Aunt Cassandra's mind was that he
had fallen in love with Aunt Jane. Soon after-
wards they heard of his death. 1 am sure she
thought him worthy of her sister from the way
236
An Episode in Jane Austen's Life
she recalled his memory, and also that she did not
doubt either that he would have been a successful
suitor."
"I fancy it was about 1799," resumes Miss
Lefroy, " that this blow fell upon Jane Austen, and
to it and the similar sorrow that befell her beloved
sister, I attribute the disuse of her pen during so
many of the finest years of her life. Between her
first novels and their successors there was a period
of twelve years, a long strange silence for which
there must surely have been some reason. Is it
not probable that, lively and cheerful as she was
in manner, she had that deep silent sorrow at her
heart, which could not but indispose her to the
exertion of writing, perhaps even paralysed the
faculty of invention ? ' Pride and Prejudice,'
' Sense and Sensibility,' and ' Northanger Abbey '
were all written before she was five-and-twenty,
indeed, I think we might say before she was three-
and-twenty, and it was not until she was thirty-five
that she began revising them for the Press. . . .
That her grief should have silenced her is, I think,
quite consistent with the reserve of her character.
Many could have found consolation in pouring out
their sorrows to the public, and describing their
own feelings under the disguise of their heroines,
but only once did Jane Austen's heart slip into
her pen when she said, as Anne Elliot, 'all the
privilege I claim for my sex, and it is not a very
237
V
Jane Austen
enviable one, is that of loving longest when hope
is gone.'
" The similarity of their fates must have
endeared the two sisters to each other, and made
other sympathy unnecessary to either. No one
was equal to Jane in Cassandra's eyes, and Jane
looked up to Cassandra as to one far better and
wiser than herself. They were, as their mother
said, ' wedded to each other.' . . . Yet they had
such a gift of reticence that the secrets of their
respective friends were never betrayed. The
young niece who brought her troubles to ' Aunt
Jane ' for advice and sympathy knew she could
depend absolutely on her silence even to her
sister. A strict fidelity which is, I think, some-
what rare between any two so closely united.
" There are many [persons] who find fault
with Jane Austens novels as hard and cold and
prudish, and who think that such was her own
nature — incapable of depth of feeling. ... Of
passionate feeling she was, perhaps, incapable, but
passion is not depth, and still less is it long-lived.
And as for the hardness and prudishness, I think
there is not allowance enough made for the differ-
ence between the fashion in this matter in her day
and our own. In hers people were called by their
plain Christian names, and * loves,' ' dears,' and
'darlings ' were less plentifully used. Caresses
were not so common and only bestowed in
238
An Episode in Jane Austen's Life
private. It is not only that her heroines abstain
from ' throwing themselves into the arms of their
lovers,' but as sisters they are equally reticent.
Dear as Jane in ' Pride and Prejudice ' is to
Lizzie, she is to her Jane, and Jane only ; and
Elinor and Marianne, who in these days would
have certainly been ' Nellie ' and ' Minnie ' are con-
tented with their own names, unadorned with any
prefix of affection. The only person she paints
as addicted to the use of terms of endearment is
Isabella Thorpe, who talks of her ' dearest,
sweetest Catherine,' without having any real regard
for her, or for any one else save herself. It is not
feeling, but the expression of feeling which has
altered. If we do not wear our hearts on our
sleeves, we seem to keep them on our lips much
more than formerly.
" It seems to me that the beauty of Jane
Austen's character has been marred by the too
careful suppression of the romance of her life.
But, though I think it probably caused the long
disuse of her pen, I do not mean to imply that it
made her gloomy or discontented. She was
bright and lively at home, and the delight of her
little nephews and nieces. To my mother she
was especially kind, writing for her the stories she
invented for herself long ere she could write, and
telling her others of endless adventure and fun,
which were carried on from day to day, or from
239
Jane Austen
visit to visit. I have still in my possession, in
Aunt Jane's writing, a drama my mother dictated
to her, founded on ' Sir Charles Grandison,' a
book with which she was familiar at seven years
old."
We learn from Miss Lefroy that Miss Austen
received an offer of marriage in 1802 from a gentle-
man who is described as "a sensible pleasant man,"
and whose " sisters were already her friends."
It would have been a match to give great satisfac
tion to the relatives on both sides, and from a
worldly point of view highly advantageous to Jane.
But she could not bring herself to consent to it,
feeling probably that " the past was so dear to
her, and her love " for him who was gone " so true
and living " that it must make " any other attach-
ment impossible."
CHAPTER XXII
LAST YEAR AT CHAWTON
" Through every period of this changeful state
Unchanged thyself — wise, good, affectionate?
We have spoken of Miss Austen's being sur-
rounded by many members of her family during
the year 1816. The little nephews and nieces
were eager visitors at the cottage. One of them
tells us how her " Aunt Jane " used to help them
in their games, and remarks : " She would furnish
us with what we wanted from her wardrobe ; and
would be the entertaining visitor in our make-
believe house. She amused us in various ways.
Once I remember in giving a conversation as
between myself and my two cousins, supposing
we were all grown up, the day after a ball." #
Here is a letter from Jane to the niece who
wrote the foregoing words. The " Cassy " men-
tioned, who was staying at Chawton Cottage,
was a child of Charles Austen — whose wife had
recently died. The letter is dated April 2 1
(1816).
* " Memoir," by J. E. Austen-Leigh.
241 Q
Jane Austen
" My dear Caroline. — . . . Cassy has had great
pleasure in working this, whatever it may be, for
you. I believe she rather fancied it might do for
a quilt for your little wax doll, but you will find a
use for it if you can I am sure. She often talks
of you, and we should all be very glad to see you
again, and if your papa # comes on Wednesday,
as we rather hope, and it suited everybody that
you should come with him, it would give us great
pleasure. Our fair at Alton is next Saturday,
which is also Mary Jane's birthday, and you would
be thought an addition on such a great day.
" Yours affec ately
"J. Austen." f
She alludes to little Cassy in another letter
written a few months earlier to her niece Mrs. Ben.
Lefroy, who, the reader may remember, was
living with her husband at Wyards, a farmhouse
near to Alton. " We told Mr. B. Lefroy," she
remarks, "that if the weather did not prevent us
we should certainly come and see you to-morrow
and bring Cassy, trusting to your being good
enough to give her a dinner about one o'clock,
that we might be able to be with you the earlier
and stay the longer ; but on giving Cassy her
choice of the Fair or Wyards she has preferred
the former, which we trust will not greatly affront
* Rev. James Austen. f Family MSS.
242
Last Year at Chawton
you — if it does you may hope that some little Anna,
hereafter, may revenge the insult by a similar
preference of an Alton fair to her cousin Cassy."
About this time Mr. Lefroy took Holy Orders.
The examination through which he had to pass
was so different to those of our own times that
/ fif /#vci"' '.j ./ ^>
EL
we will quote his daughter's account of it. "I
have heard my mother say," she writes, "that
when he returned from being ordained he told
her that the Bishop had only asked him two
questions — first, if he was the son of Mrs. Lefroy
of Ashe, and, secondly, if he had married a Miss
Austen. I suppose the chaplain's examination
extended a little further but my impression is
that having passed through Oxford was con-
243
Jane Austen
sidered a sufficient guarantee of fitness, and that
his questions were not much more troublesome
than the Bishop's." #
In the early part of the year 1816 Jane Austen's
health began gradually to decline. It is supposed
that the strain of her brother Henry's illness — her
anxiety and watchful nursing — had told upon her
strength ; and she had been also tried in another
way. The bank in which Henry was a partner
had failed, owing to some commercial disasters of
the time, and she had felt keenly for her brother
in all that he had had to go through on this
account. But her letters are cheerful as ever, and
the allusions to her failing health few and far
between and given only to allay the anxiety of
her correspondents.
" I am almost entirely cured of my rheumatism,"
she writes to her niece, Fanny Knight, "just a
little pain in my knee now and then to make me
remember what it was, and keep on flannel. Aunt
Cassandra nursed me beautifully." And a few
weeks later she remarks, " I am got tolerably well
again, quite equal to walking about and enjoying
the air, and by sitting down and resting a good
while between my walks I get exercise enough.
I have a scheme, however, for accomplishing
more, as the weather grows spring-like. I mean
to take to riding the donkey ; it will be more
* Family MSS.
244
Last Year at Chawton
independent and less troublesome than the use of
the carnage, and I shall be able to go about with
Aunt Cassandra in her walks to Alton and
Wyards." #
These very letters are full of affection and sweet
playfulness, called forth by a circumstance con-
nected with this same niece, namely, that she
seemed likely, at that time, to become engaged
to be married. Her aunt writes, " You are the
delight of my life. Such letters, such entertaining
letters as you have lately sent ! such a description
of your queer little heart ! such a lovely display
of what imagination does ! You are worth your
weight in gold, or even in the new silver coinage.
You are so odd, and all the time so perfectly
natural — so peculiar in yourself, and yet so like
everybody else !
" I do not like that you should marry anybody.
And yet I do wish you to marry very much . . .
but the loss of a Fanny Knight will never be
made up to me."
Two of Fanny's brothers were then staying at
Chawton Cottage. " And now I will tell you,"
Jane continues, " that we like your Henry to the
utmost, to the very top of the glass, quite brim-
ful. . . . He does really bid fair to be everything
his father and sister could wish ; and William I
love very much and so we do all ; he is quite our
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
2 45
Jane Austen
own William. In short we are very comfortable
together ; that is we can answer for ourselves ."
Here is an allusion to another brother of Fanny's
who was on his way to Winchester School.
" Charles and his companions passed through
Chawton about nine this morning . . . Uncle
Henry and I had a glimpse of his handsome face,
looking all health and good humour."
She writes to Fanny on March 23 : "I took
my first ride yesterday, and liked it very much. I
went up Mounter's Lane and round by where the
new cottages are to be, and found the exercise
and everything very pleasant ; and I had the ad-
vantage of agreeable companions, as At. Cass,
and Edward walked by my side. At. Cass is such
an excellent nurse, so assiduous and unwearied !
But you know all that already. " #
Soon after this letter was written Jane Austen
paid a visit to her friends, the Fowles, f at Kintbury,
in Berkshire. They noticed with concern that
"her health seemed impaired, and observed that
she went about her old haunts, and recalled old
recollections connected with them in a particular
manner, as if she did not expect ever to see them
again." In one of her letters, after mentioning an
attack of illness from which she had suffered, she
remarks : " But I am getting too near complaint ;
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
f Mrs. Fowle was a sister of Mrs. James Austen.
246
Last Year at Chawton
it has been the appointment of God, however
secondary causes may have operated."*
She rallied, however, once more, and later in the
year we find her writing to her nephew Edward t
in her old playful vein : "You will not pay us a
visit yet, of course — we must not think of it. Your
mother must get well first, and you must go to
Oxford and not be elected ; after that a little
change of scene may be good for you, and your
physicians, I hope, will order you to the sea or to
a house by the side of a very considerable pond."
(This is an allusion to the horse-pond in the fork
of the Winchester and Gosport roads in front
of the cottage.) And again she writes : "I give
you joy of having left Winchester. Now you
may own how miserable you were there ; now it
will gradually all come out, your crimes and your
miseries — how often you went up by the mail
to London, and threw away fifty guineas at a
tavern ; and how often you were on the point
of hanging yourself, restrained only, as some
ill-natured aspersion upon poor old Winton has
it, by the want of a tree within some miles of
the city."
Her brothers, Henry and Charles, were both
staying at the cottage at this time. Henry
had recently been ordained. "They are each of
* "Memoir," by J. E. Austen-Leigh.
f Mr. Austen- Leigh.
247
n|
Jane Austen
them so agreeable in their different ways," she
writes, " and harmonise so well that their visit is
thorough enjoyment. Uncle Henry writes very
superior sermons. You and I must try to get hold
of one or two and put them into our novels : # it
would be a fine help to a volume, and we could
make our heroine read it aloud on a Sunday
evening, just as well as Isabella Wardour in the
' Antiquary ' is made to read the ' History of the
Hartz Demon,' in the ruins of St. Ruth, though I
believe, on recollection, Lovell is the reader. By
the bye, my dear E., I am quite concerned for the
loss your mother mentions in her letter. Two
chapters and a half to be missing is monstrous !
It is well that / have not been at Steventon lately,
and therefore cannot be suspected of purloining
them ; two strong twigs and a half towards a nest
of my own would have been something. I do not
think, however, that any theft of that sort would
be really very useful to me. What should I do
with your strong, manly, vigorous sketches, full of
variety and glow ? How could I possibly join
them on to the little bit (two inches wide) of ivory
on which I work with so fine a brush as produces
little effect after much labour ? " f
It is pleasant here to recall the well-known
words of Sir Walter Scott, written in his diary for
* This nephew had been trying his hand at story-making,
f " Memoir."
248
Last Year at Chawton
March 14, 1826: "Read again for the third
time, at least, Miss Austen's finely written novel
of ' Pride and Prejudice.' That young lady had a
talent for describing- the involvements and feelings
and characters of ordinary life which is to me the
most wonderful I ever met with. The big bow-
wow strain I can do myself like any now going ;
but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary
commonplace things and characters interesting
from the truth of the description and the senti-
ment, is denied to me."
As her health declined Jane Austen's habits of
activity gradually ceased, and she was obliged to
lie down much. " The sitting-room (at Chawton
Cottage) contained only one sofa," Mr. Austen
Leigh tells us, " which was frequently occupied by
her mother, who was more than seventy years old.
Jane would never use it, even in her mother's
absence ; but she contrived a sort of couch for
herself with two or three chairs, and was pleased
to say that this arrangement was more comfortable
to her than a real sofa. Her reasons for this might
have been left to be guessed, but for the impor-
tunities of a little niece, which obliged her to
explain that if she herself had shown any inclina-
tion to use the sofa, her mother might have
scrupled being on it so much as was good for
her."
Jane Austen's mind did not share in this decay
249
Jane Austen
of her bodily strength. "Persuasion" had been
brought to an end in the month of July of this
same year (1816), but the conclusion differed in
treatment to that with which we are familiar : the
re-engagement of the hero and heroine having
been effected in a scene laid in Admiral Croft's
lodgings. " Her performance, however," writes
her nephew, " did not satisfy her. She thought it
tame and flat, and was desirous of producing some-
thing better. This weighed upon her mind . . .
so that one night she retired to rest in very low
spirits. But such depression was little in ac-
cordance with her nature, and was soon shaken
off. The next morning she awoke to more cheer-
ful views and brighter inspirations ; the sense of
power revived, and imagination resumed its course.
She cancelled the condemned chapter, and wrote
two others entirely different in its stead. . . .
Perhaps it may be thought that she has seldom
written anything more brilliant."
" In our judgment," writes an American critic,
" there is no part in any of Miss Austen's novels
that shows stronger marks of the hand of the
consummate artist than the winding up of ' Persua-
sion ' and the natural, yet unexpected way in
which the hero and heroine come out of the
complications in which they have been entangled,
and into the understanding which happily con-
cludes the whole matter. The change from her
250
Last Year at Chawton
first plan which is now made known to us, in this
last effort of her genius, shows that her imagination
was as vivid and her judgment as true as at any
previous period of her authorship."*
In January 1817, Miss Austen wrote to a
friend : " We have just had a few days' visit
from Edward. ... He grows still, and still
improves in appearance, at least in the estima-
tion of his aunts, who love him better and
better, as they see the sweet temper and warm
affections of the boy confirmed in the young-
man." It is to this same beloved nephew that
we are indebted for the beautiful record of Jane
Austen's life.
One of the last letters dated from Chawton that
have been preserved is addressed to Jane's little
niece, Cassy. It is written in text-hand, and is
spelt backwards for the child's amusement. We
give it spelt in the ordinary way :f
" My dear Cassy, — I wish you a happy new-
year. Your six cousins came here yesterday, and
had each a piece of cake. This is little Cassy 's *
birthday, and she is eight years old. Frank has
begun learning Latin. Edward feeds the robin
every morning. Sally often inquires after you.
Sally Benham has got a new green gown.
* Nation, September 7, 1871.
f Family MSS.
X A child of Francis Austen.
251
Jane Austen
Harriet Knight comes every day to read to
Aunt Cassandra. Good-bye, dear Cassy. Aunt
Cassandra sends her love, and so do we all.
" Your affectionate Aunt,
"Jane Austen."
CHAPTER XXIII
WINCHESTER
V,
"A Christian's wit is inoffensive light,
A beam that aids, but never grieves the sight?
In the month of May (1817) Miss Austen was
persuaded by her family to remove to Winchester
in order to be under the care of a medical man of
repute in the county — a member of the Lyford
family. She and her sister Cassandra took lodgings
in College Street
Writing to her nephew Edward on May 27 she
says : " Thanks to the kindness of your father and
mother in sending me their carriage, my journey
hither on Saturday was performed with very
little fatigue, and had it been a fine day I think
I should have felt none ; but it distressed me to
see Uncle Henry and Wm. Knight, who kindly
attended us on horseback, riding in the rain
almost the whole way. . . . Our lodgings are
very comfortable. We have a neat little drawing-
room with a bow window overlooking Dr. Gabell's
garden."
253
Jane Austen
We have followed Miss Austen to Winchester,
and have visited the house in College Street
where she passed the last weeks of her life.
College Street is a narrow picturesque lane,
with small old-fashioned houses on one side,
terminating in the ancient stone buildings of the
College. The garden ground on the opposite
side of the street belonged, and still belongs, to
the head master. We have entered the " neat
little drawing-room with a bow window " which
remains unchanged. It is a pretty quaint parlour,
with a low ceiling and a narrow doorway. Its
white muslin curtains and pots of gay flowers on
the window sill lent a cheerful air to the room.
We almost fancied we could see Miss Austen
seated in the window writing to her nephew,
glancing from time to time across the high-walled
garden, with its waving trees, to the old red roofs
of the Close, with the great grey Cathedral
towering above them.
" On Thursday, which is a confirmation and a
holiday," Jane writes, "we are to get Charles out
to breakfast. We have had but one visit from
him, poor fellow, as he is in the sick-room, but he
hopes to be out to-night. We see Mrs. Heath-
cote every day." Mrs. Heathcote and her sister
Miss Bigg (of Manydown) were residing in the
Close.
She writes again later on : "I live chiefly on
254
"IN THIS HOUSE JANE AUSTEN SPENT HER LAST DAYS
Winchester
the sofa, but am allowed to walk from one room
to the other. I have been out once in a sedan-
chair, and am to repeat it and be promoted to a
wheeled chair as the weather serves." And
speaking of her illness she remarks, " On this
subject I will only say further that my dearest
sister, my tender watchful, indefatigable nurse has
not been made ill by her exertions. As to what
I owe to her, and to the anxious affection of all
my beloved family on this occasion, I can only
cry over it, and pray to God to bless them more
and more."*
We are told by her brother Henry that " she
supported, during two months, all the varying
pain, irksomeness, and tedium," attendant on her
decline "with more than resignation, with a truly
elastic cheerfulness." " She retained," he says,
" her faculties, her memory, her fancy, her temper,
and her affections, warm, clear, and unimpaired,
to the last. . . . She expired on Friday, July 18
(1817), in the arms of her sister."
On the 24th of that month she was buried in
Winchester Cathedral. She lies in the north
aisle, near to the old black marble font, and
almost opposite to the beautiful chantry of
William of Wykeham.
Cassandra writes to a niece on the day of the
funeral, " I watched the little mournful procession
* " Memoir," by Henry Austen.
257 R
Jane Austen
the length of the street ; and when it turned from
my sight and I had lost her for ever, even then I
was not overpowered, nor so much agitated as I
am now in writing of it. Never was human being
more sincerely mourned by those who attended
her remains, than was this dear creature. May
the sorrow with which she is parted with on earth
be a prognostic of the joy with which she is hailed
in heaven." *
The last picture we have of the Chawton home
is of Cassandra living there alone after the death
of both her mother and sister. " The small house
and pretty garden," writes her niece, "must have
been full of memories of them. She read the
same books (that they had read) and kept in the
little dining-room the same old piano on which
her dear sister had played, and though gentle and
cheerful and fond of her nephews and nieces . . .
I am sure never thought any one of them to be
compared in beauty and sweetness and goodness
to her beloved Jane." " I remember," she con-
tinues, "when my mother and I were staying
with her when I was about seventeen, being
greatly struck and impressed by the way in
which she spoke of her sister, there was such
an accent of living love in her voice." f
* " Letters," Lord Brabourne.
f Family MSS.
258
THE PARLOUR IN COLLEGE STREET
Winchester
A short memoir of Jane Austen appeared early
in 1818 written by her brother Henry and pre-
fixed to the first edition of " Northanger Abbey
and Persuasion." After speaking of the novels
he goes on to say that "In the bosom of
her own family their authoress talked of them
freely, thankful for praise, open to remark, and
submissive to criticism. But in public she turned
away from any allusion to the character of an
authoress. . . . No accumulation of fame would
have induced her, had she lived, to affix her
name to any productions of her pen. ... It was
with extreme difficulty that her friends, whose
partiality she suspected, could prevail on her to
publish her first work. Nay, so persuaded was
she that its sale would not repay the expense of
publication, that she actually made a reserve from
her very moderate income to meet the expected
loss. She could scarcely believe what she termed
her 'great good fortune,' when 'Sense and
Sensibility ' produced a clear profit of about
^150. . . . She regarded the above sum as a
prodigious recompense for that which had cost
her nothing." "Her power of inventing char-
acters," he remarks, "seems to have been intui-
tive, and almost unlimited. She drew from
nature ; but whatever may have been surmised
to the contrary, never from individuals. . . .
She read aloud with very great taste and effect.
261
\J
Jane Austen
Her own works, probably, were never heard to
so much advantage as from her own mouth."
These words recall to our mind the incident of
Jane's reading aloud the manuscript of " Mans-
field Park " to this same brother, as they were
travelling together in a post-chaise on their way to
London.
After alluding to the popularity of some of the
more sensational novels of the day, her brother
continues : " The works of Jane Austen, however,
may live as long as those which have burst on the
world with more tclat. But the public has not
been unjust, and our authoress was far from
thinking it so."
Miss Austen's fame has been of slow growth,
but it has steadily increased with the increase of
culture. Even in her own day the best minds
recognised her power, but now her works are
enjoyed by thousands of readers who owe to her
some of the happiest hours of their lives, v Her
critics too seem, each one, to find in her just those
special qualities which he himself looks for in a
favourite writer. One learned reviewer extols her
adherence to the great principles of the literary
art as acted upon by Homer and enforced by
Aristotle, another praises her for her essentially
feminine qualities, while a third is struck by her
masculine vigour.
The American critic whom we have already
262
^ Mnih
JANE AUSTENS GRAVE IN WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL
Winchester
quoted remarks, " for the perfection of artifice
which conceals itself, and seems nothing but the
simplicity of nature and the necessary course of
events, there is no story-teller that we know of
that surpasses Jane Austen. Her stories never
tire, and are as fresh in interest on the fiftieth
reading as on the first, and her characters are as
much actual entities to us as our own acquaint-
ances, and much more so than most personages in
history." Another critic dwells on what he calls
her "dramatic ventriloquism," which makes us,
" amid our tears of laughter and exasperation at
folly, feel it almost impossible that she did not
hear those very people utter those very words,"
so that " we are almost made actors, as well as
spectators, of the little drama." Her "conversa-
tions, " wrote Archbishop Whately, in 1 8 2 1 , " are con-
ducted with a regard to character hardly exceeded
by Shakespeare himself. Like him she shows as
admirable a discrimination in the characters of
fools as of people of sense." " Some persons," he
tells us, " have declared that they have found her
fools too true to nature, and consequently tire-
some " ; but of such persons he remarks that
" whatever deference they may outwardly pay to
received opinions," he is sure "they must find the
' Merry Wives of Windsor ' and ' Twelfth Night '
very tiresome."
A fourth critic remarks: " To have caused us
26^
Jane Austen
an uninterrupted amusement without ever des-
cending to the grotesque, to have been comic
without being vulgar, and to have avoided
extremes of every kind, without ever being dull
or commonplace, is the praise of which Jane
Austen is almost entitled to a monopoly." While
another observes : " Even in Captain Price's case
she did what Pope pronounced to be impossible,
reconciled the ' tarpauline phrase ' with the re-
quirements of art and civility. Out of these
bounds her language never strays. She is neat,
epigrammatic, but always a lady."
Her power of what has been termed " describing
without description " seems to us to be another
monopoly of Miss Austen's. By a mere hint,
dropped here and there, a whole character is placed
before us. Who does not know Mrs. Rush worth
by her "stately simper"? Or Mrs. Palmer by
her spending her time in the London shops
"in raptures and indecision"? Or Mr. John
Knightley, who, when out of humour, was accus-
tomed to have the sedative of " 'very true, my
love ' administered to him " by his wife ? And
who does not exactly comprehend the kind of
intercourse between Mrs. Norris and Dr. Grant
which "had begun in dilapidations " ?
Her descriptions of nature, which are terse
indeed compared with the elaborate "word-
painting" of some of our writers, are reserved,
266
Winchester
like those of Shakespeare, to increase the dramatic
effect of the situation. Take, for example, the
stormy wet July evening towards the end of
" Emma," which emphasises with its gloom
Emma's dismal forebodings. Or, take a^ain
Anne Elliot's reflections during the walk to
Winthrop on that late autumnal day, upon declin-
ing happiness and the declining year, when the
sight of the ploughs busily at work on the uplands
brings a ray of hope showing that the farmers, at
any rate, " were meaning to have spring again."
In her description of places our authoress is
equally reticent, and yet with what consummate
power she places them before our eyes ! One
of her critics writes : "It is impossible to con-
ceive a more perfect piece of village geography, a
scene more absolutely real " than " Highbury,
with Ford's shop in the High Street, and Miss
Bates's rooms opposite. . . . Nothing could be
more easy than to make a map of it, with indi-
cations where the London road strikes off, and by
which turning Frank Churchill, on his tired horse,
will come from Richmond. We know it as well
as if we had lived there all our lives and visited
Miss Bates every other day." #
In an article which appeared some years ago,
the writer concludes with the following remarks
upon Jane Austen : "Her fame, we think, must
* Blackwood, March 1870.
267
Jane Austen
endure. Such art as hers can never grow old,
never be superseded. But, after all, miniatures
are not frescoes, and her works are miniatures.
Her place is among the Immortals, but the
pedestal is erected in a quiet niche of the great
temple."
We must remind this writer, however, that
Ruskin tells us that " grandeur depends upon pro-
portion, not size," and that from Ben Jonson we
learn that —
In small proportions we just beauties see,
And in short measures life may perfect be.
We should like to close this account of Jane
Austen and her surroundings with the words of
another critic. After mentioning the title " given
by some simple devotees of Germany to a
cherished lady " as that of " the dear and saintly
Elizabeth," "might we not," he asks, "for like
reasons borrow from Miss Austen's biographer
the title which the affection of a nephew bestows,
and recognise her officially as ' dear Aunt
Jane'?"
268
INDEX
INDEX
Abbey School at Reading to which
Jane Austen went, kept by
Madame Latournelle, descrip-
tion of school and its surround-
ings, 33-8 ; school removed to
London, Mary Russell Mitford
a pupil, her account of school
entertainments, 38-9
Alexander, Emperor of Russia, in
London in 1814, 211-12
Alton, 170
Ashe Park, 7 ; occupied by the
St John family, 70 ; party at,
73-4
Ashe Rectory, dance at, 69-72
Austen, Anna (afterwards Mrs.
Ben. Lefroy), daughter of Rev.
James Austen, visits Steventon
Parsonage when a child, de-
scribes house and inmates, 28-
32 ; her uncle Henry, 48-9, 86 ;
her visits to Chawton Cottage,
194-6 ; writes a novel, her
"Aunt Jane's" criticisms, 221-4;
marries Mr. Benjamin Lefroy,
224-6 ; resides at " Wyards,"
near Alton, intercourse with her
*' Aunt Jane," 227-8, 242, 245
Austen, Cassandra, 14 ; at the
Reading Abbey school with her
sister Jane, 33-4 ; her engage-
ment to Thomas Craven Fowle,
his death, 92-3 ; her approval
of "Pride and Prejudice," 190 ;
in London in 1814, 211-12;
letter describing her sister's
funeral, 257-8 ; living alone at
Chawton Cottage, 258
Austen, Charles (afterwards
Admiral Charles), youngest of
family, midshipman on Unicorn
(Captain Thomas Williams), 42 ;
action of Unicorn with La Tri-
bune, 42-3 ; made Lieutenant,
46 ; appointed to Endymion (Sir
Thomas Williams), his gallant
conduct respecting Scipio, 47 ;
his visits home, 48 ; pays atten-
tion to members of Lord Leven's
family, 130-1 ; arrival with
wife and children at Godmer-
sham Park, 198 ; sent out to
Mediterranean on escape of
Napoleon from Elba, defeats
pirates of Archipelago, Phoenix
wrecked off coast of Smyrna,
228-9 > bis visit to Chawton
Cottage in 1816, 247-8
Austen, Edward, see Knight
Austen, Mrs. Edward (husband
takes name of Knight after her
death), daughter of Sir Brook
Bridges, of Goodnestone, 50 ;
her death in October 1808, 153 ;
Miss Austen's affection for her,
153-5
Austen, Francis (afterwards Ad-
miral Sir Francis), 42 ; serves as
271
Index
Senior Lieutenant in ships on
home stations, 1798, on the
London at Cadiz, his promotion
likely to take place, 44 : is raised
to rank of Commander and
appointed to Petierel sloop, 45 ;
captures Ligurienne, Petterel
forms part of Sir Sydney Smith's
squadron off coast of Egypt, his
" gallant action " respecting a
Turkish ship, 46-7 ; residing
with family in Alton in 18 16
after serving in campaigns of
North Sea and Baltic, 228
Austen, Rev. George, leaves Deane
for Steventon, 5-6 ; anecdote of,
21 ; appearance of, described by
a granddaughter, 31 ; a good
scholar, 82 ; writes to Mr,
Cadell to suggest his publish
ing "Pride and Prejudice,'
his proposal declined, 87-8
arranges to hand over care of
Steventon living to his son
James and to retire with family
to Bath, 91 ; his visit to Lyme
Regis, 133, 142; dies at Bath
(Jan. 21, 1805), is buried in
Walcot Church, 148
Austen, Mrs. George, leaves
Deane for Steventon, 5-6 ; her
appearance and character de-
scribed by a granddaughter, 31-
2 ; loves a country life, her
cheerful temperament, excellent
letter writer, 82-3 ; quits Ste-
venton for Bath, 94; her visit
to Lyme Regis, 133; her hus-
band's death (1805), removes
with daughters to lodgings in
Gay Street, goes to live at
Southampton (in Castle Square),
148-9 ; her letter describing visit
to Stoneleigh Abbey, 163-7;
leaves Southampton and settles
at Chawton, 169-70 ; occupies
herself with gardening and
needlework, her energy of
character, 176-8
Austen, Henry, his appearance,
31 ; brilliant in conversation,
48-9 ; his entertaining letters,
131 ; marries his widowed
cousin, Madame de Feuillade,
his sister Jane visits him ir
Sloane Street, 208 ; death of
wife in 181 3, becomes a partner
in Tilson's Bank, 211 ; takes
house in Hans Place, his sister
Jane's visit in 1814, 212 ; is
nursed by her through danger-
ous illness in 18 15, 218; takes
Holy Orders, his visit
Chawton Cottage in 18 16, his
sister Jane's affection for him,
247-8 ; his short memoir of
her, published early in 1818,
257
Austen, Rev. James, after career
at college takes Holy Orders,
becomes Vicar of Sherborne
St. John's, and resident curate
for his father at Deane, is twice
married, first wife daughter of
General Mathew, Governor of
New Granada, who dies in
1795, his second wife, a Miss
Lloyd, member of a family with
whom the Austens were inti-
mate, 49 ; writes prologues and
epilogues for Steventon plays,
82 ; assumes care of Steventon
living, 91 ; his daughter Anna's
marriage, 224
Austen, Mrs. James (first wife of
Rev. James Austen), daughter
of General Mathew, Governor
of New Granada, dies suddenly
272
Index
in 1795, leaving one daughter,
"Anna," 49
Austen, Mrs. James (second wife
of Rev. James Austen), mother
of Edward Austen (afterwards
Mr. Austen Leigh) and Caroline
Austen, 49
Austen, Jane, birth of, 23 ; ap-
proaches her art in the same
spirit as Mary Russell Mitford,
24-5 ; at the Reading Abbey
school with her sister Cassan-
dra, 33-4 ; her joy at her
brother Francis" promotion,
44-6; interest in her brother
Charles' doings, 42-6 ; her
personal appearance, 54-5 ; her
description of county balls,
55-8 ; visiting the Bigg Wither
family at Manydown Park,
60-1; the " Harwoods' ball,"
and ball at Ashe Rectory, 70 ;
friendship with " Madame Le-
froy," mourns her loss, 72-3 ;
visits to neighbours, ball
at Kempshotte House, 73-6 ;
her early writings chiefly bur-
lesques, 79-80 ; acting in plays at
Steventon, 81 ; home influences,
early admiration for Richardson' s
works, 83-4 ; the "dressing-
room "at Steventon parsonage,
her love of music, 84-6 ; " Pride
and Prejudice," begun in 1796,
finished in 1797, offered for
publication to Mr. Cadell, is
declined, 86-8; begins "Sense
and Sensibility" in November
1797, finishes it within a year,
writes " Northanger Abbey" in
1798, novel remains unpub-
lished for many years, 88-9 ;
author and critic united in her,
89-90 ; sorrow at leaving Steven-
ton, 91-2 ; removal to Bath
(1801), 94 ; describes journey to
Bath and arrival in Paragon,
Pump Room, 98-102 ; describes
ball at Upper Rooms, 108-9 '•
goes to live at 4 Sydney Place,
122; Bath Society, 126, 129-30,
writes her unfinished story of
the "Watsons," 131; "North-
anger Abbey" sold to a Bath
publisher, 132 ; visits Lyme
Regis, cottage in which she
stayed described, 133-6 ;
"Captain Harville's house,"
and ' ' steep flight of steps on
Cobb," 136-40 ; Pinney and
Charmouth, 140-1 ; at a ball in
the Assembly Rooms, 142 ;
"Royal Lion," 144-5 ; death of
her father in Bath, 148 ; quits
Bath and goes to live at
Southampton, house in Castle
Square, 149 ; its garden, 150-1 ;
at ball in Assembly Rooms,
15 1-3 ; sorrow on death of Mrs.
Edward Austen, 153-5 ; visit of
nephews to Castle Square,
156-8 ; her love for children,
158-60; visit to Stoneleigh
Abbey, 161 ; meets Lady Saye
and Sele, 166 ; preparing to
leave Southampton, removal to
Chawton Cottage, the "par-
lour," 169-72; her desk, her
piano, 174-5 ; garden at Chaw-
ton Cottage, 176; her "quiet
life," intercourse with " Great
House," 177-8; correcting proof
sheets of "Sense and Sensi-
bility," book published (1811)
by T. Egerton, "announce-
ment" of its publication, 183-7 ;
her admiration of Crabbe's
poems, 188-9; "Pride and
73 s
Index
Prejudice" published 1813,
arrival of first copy, personal
interest in the characters, 189-
91; writing "Mansfield Park"
(1813), reads MS. to her brother
Henry, 192-4 ; Mrs. Hunter's
novel, 194-6; visit to Godmer-
sham Park in 181 3, arrival of
her brother Charles and family,
198 ; a favourite with the chil-
dren, 199-200; "Charade" by
her, 200; hears " Marmion "
read, 201 ; curiosity about her
as an authoress, 202-3 ! visits
Mrs. Thomas Knight at Canter-
bury, 203-4 '• stays at Wrotham
Rectory, 205 ; her visits to
London, stays in Cork Street
in 1796, 206 ; stays with her
brother Henry and his wife in
Sloane Street in 1811, 208;
musical party, 210; French
emigres, 211 ; stays with her
brother in Hans Place in 18 14,
visits to the theatre, to London
shops, 214-16; "Pride and
Prejudice" admired, "Mans-
field Park " published early in
1814, 216-17 ; party in Hans
Place, 217; correcting proof
sheets of "Emma," 217-18;
nurses her brother Henry
through a dangerous illness in
1815, her visit to Carlton
House, Prince Regent's pro-
posal for her to dedicate
"Emma" to him, "corre-
spondence with Mr. Clarke
(Librarian of Carlton House),
215-20; at Chawton Cottage in
1 814, her criticisms of her
niece "Anna's" novel, 221-4;
remarks about " Waver ley,"
224; writing "Persuasion,"
229-30 ; " successful in every-
thing she attempted with her
fingers," 230-1; an episode in her
life related by a relative, 234-40 ;
her last year at Chawton (1816),
intercourse with nephews and
nieces, 241-3 ; health begins to
decline, words about nephews,
245-6 ; visit to the Fowles
at Kintbury, patience under
suffering, letters to her nephew
Edward, 247-8 ; re-writes
final chapters of " Persua-
sion," 249-50; words about
her nephew Edward, letter to
little " Cassy," 251-2; her re-
removal to Winchester (May
1 816) lodges with her sister in
College Street, her letters from
Winchester, 253-7 ; dies on
Friday, July 18 (1817), is
buried in Winchester Cathedral,
her sister Cassandra describes
the funeral, 257-8 ; extract from
short memoir by her brother
Henry, 261-2 ; steady increase
of her fame, testimony of critics,
concluding remarks, 262-8
Balls in Miss Austen's day de-
scribed, 58-60
Basingstoke, old Assembly Rooms
at, discovered, 51-3
Bath, Mr. Leigh- Perrot's house
in Paragon, Camden Place,
96-7 ; description of Pump
Room, exterior and interior,
97-8; aichway opposite Union
Passage, 102 ; Milsom Street,
104-5 '• °ld Theatre in Orchard
Street, its vicissitudes, 1 17-18;
"White Hart" and "York
House," 118; Octagon Chapel,
service at, described by Mrs.
274
Index
Piozzi, 119-20; Beechen Cliff
and Crescent Fields, 120-21 ;
4 Sydney Place, 122-5 '< Sydney
Gardens, 125; death of Rev.
George Austen in Green Park
Buildings, 25 Gay Street, to
which Austen family removed,
148-9
Bigg, Miss Catherine (daughter
of Mr. Bigg Wither of Many-
down Park), with Miss Austen
at Assembly balls, 56, 60
" Boltons" (familyofLord Bolton)
at Basingstoke Assembly balls, 56
Bond, John, "factotum" of the
Rev. George Austen, anecdote
of, 21, 93, 189
Bramston, Mr. and Mrs., of
Oakley Hall, 73
Bridges, Sir Brook, of Good-
nestone, in Kent (father of Mrs.
Edward Austen), 50
Bridges, Harriet, marries Rev.
George Moore, Miss Austen
visits her at Wrotham, 204-5
Bridges, John, 204
Bridges, Louisa, 204
Briggs, Mr., 57
Buller, Mr. , 69
Butcher, Mr., 55
Cadell, Mr., refuses to publish
" Pride and Prejudice," 87-8
Calland, Mr., at a Basingstoke
Assembly ball, 55
Chawton Cottage, given by
Edward Knight to his mother,
description of cottage and mode
of life there, 171-5 ; its garden
and " shubbery walk," 175-6;
its vicinity to the "Great
House," 178
Chawton House, description of,
family portraits, 178-82
Chawton, village of, 170
Chute, T., at Assembly balls, 56
Chute, Mr. William, owner of the
" Vine ' ' and head of Vine Hunt,
anecdotes of, 63-5
Clarke, Mr. (librarian of Carlton
House), conveys message of
Prince Regent requesting Miss
Austen to dedicate " Emma " to
him, 218-19 ; suggests subjects
for future novels, 219-20
Clerk, family of, at Assembly balls,
56
Cooke, George (a cousin of Jane
Austen), at party in Bath, 129;
at Stoneleigh Abbey, 166 ; at
party in Sloane Street, 210
Cooke, Mary (a cousin of Jane
Austen), 129 ; at party in Sloane
Street, 210
Cooper, Rev. Edward, 31
Cooper, Edward (cousin of Jane
Austen), 34, 69
Cooper, Jane (cousin of Jane
Austen), at Reading Abbey
school, 33-4 ; marries Captain
Williams, R.N., 42-3
Cope, Sir John, anecdote of, 65
Cowper, William, his poems read
aloud in Steventon Parsonage,
42
Deane, old rectory of, in which
Mr. and Mrs. Austen lived
during early married life, 66-7
Deane Gate, wayside inn, 4
Deane Lane, 5, 66
Deane Manor House, 5 ; home of
the Harwood family, 66 ; ball
at, 67-9
Digweed, family of, tenants of
Steventon Manor House, inter-
course with Austen family, 18,
21
Index
Digweed, James, 21 ; at Assembly
balls, 56-7
Digweed, William, 75
Dorchester, family of, at Assembly
balls, 56
Dorchester, Lord, distinguished
himself in American war as Sir
Guy Carleton, made Governor-
General of Quebec, 75
Dorchester, Lady, gives ball at
Kempshott House on Jan. 8,
1799. 75
Dummer, Manor House of,
belonging to the Terry family,
62 ; church of, 63
"Emma," Miss Austen correcting
proof sheets of, Prince Regent
requests author to dedicate it to
him, 217-19
Fashions in ladies' dress, " Mama-
louc cap," 75-6 ; the " Minerva
helmet," 101 ; "high feathers"
worn by ladies, 109
Feuillade, Madame de (afterwards
Mrs. Henry Austen), daughter
of Rev. George Austen's sister,
Mrs. Hancock, on death of
husband escapes from France
and lives at Steventon Parson-
age, 81 ; takes chief parts in
plays, her portrait, marries
Henry Austen, and lives in
Sloane Street, receives visit
from Miss Jane Austen, 208 ;
her death, 211
Fowle, Rev. Thomas Craven, his
engagement to Cassandra
Austen, goes out to West Indies
as chaplain to Lord Craven's
regiment, his death, 92-3
Gambier, Admiral, letter from,
respecting Francis Austen's
promotion, 44-5
Godmersham Park (in Kent), seat
of Edward Knight, 197-9
Goodnestone (in Kent), seat of the
Bridges family, 50
Hampshire, former condition of
its roads and lanes, 26 ; mode
of life described, 27
Harwood, Mr. John, at Assembly
ball, 55 ; family of Harwoods of
Deane, 66 ; their ball, 67-8
Holder, Mr., at Ashe Park, 74
Jenkins, Mr., at Assembly ball, 57
Jervoise, Col., at Assembly ball,
57
Kempshott House, ball at, Jan.
8, 1799, house described, 75-8 ;
occupied formerly by George
Prince of Wales, 77
Knatchbull, Mr. (from Provender),
203
Knatchbull, Lady, 204
Knight, Charles (son of Edward
Knight), his "Aunt Jane's"
words about him, 246, 254
Knight, Edward (ne Austen), is
adopted by Mr. Thomas Knight,
takes his name, and inherits his
estates of Godmersham Park in
Kent and Chawton House in
Hampshire; marries Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir Brook Bridges,
resides first at Rowling, and
afterwards at Godmersham
Park, 49-50 ; death of his wife,
153-5 ; offers Chawton Cottage
to his mother, 169 ; his portrait,
181 ; visits from his sister Jane,
197-8; is with her in London
215
76
Index
Knight, Edward, Jun., visits the
Austens at Southampton, 155-7
Knight, Fanny (eldest child of
Edward Knight), her !'Aunt
Jane's " affection for her, 154-5,
160 ; and pleasure in her
approval of " Pride and Preju-
dice," 190 ; stays in Hans Place,
217; her "Aunt Jane's" words
to her, 244-6
Knight, George (younger son of
Edward Knight), visits the
Austens at Southampton, 155-7
Knight, Henry (younger son of
Edward Knight), his "Aunt
Jane's " words about him, 245-6
Knight, Marianne (younger
daughter of Edward Knight),
her recollections of her " Aunt
Jane's" staying at Godmersham
Park, 202
Knight, William (younger son of
Edward Knight), his "Aunt
Jane's" words about him, 170,
245-6
Knight, Mr. Thomas, of Godmer-
sham Park in Kent and of
Chawton House in Hampshire,
adopts Edward Austen, dies in
1794. 49-50
Knight, Mrs. Thomas, on death
of husband in 1794 hands over
his estates to Edward Austen
and retires to house called
" White Friars " in Canterbury,
50 ; Miss Austen visits her there,
1813, 203-4
Laverstoke Park, seat of William
Portal, Esq., 66
Latournelle, Madame, mistress of
the Reading Abbey school, 33,
37
Lefroy, Rev. Benjamin, marries
Anna Austen, 224-6 ; takes Holy
Orders, 243-4
Lefroy, Mrs. Benjamin (see Anna
Austen)
Lefroy, G. at Assembly ball, 55,
69
Lefroy, Rev. Isaac, 70-1
Lefroy, " Madame" (wife of Rev.
Isaac Lefroy), friend of Miss
Austen's, killed by fall from
horse in 1804, 72-3
Lefroy, "Tom," at " Harwood's
ball," at Steventon, at dance in
Ashe Rectory, 69-72
Leigh, Mr. Thomas, of Adlestrop,
inherits Stoneleigh Abbey, re-
ceives visit from Mrs. Austen
and her daughter Jane, 161-3,
164, 167
Leigh (" young Mr."), nephew of
above, 167
Leven, Lord and Lady, 130
Littlewart, Nanny, 8, 10
Lloyd, Miss Martha, 89; resides
with Mrs. Austen and her daugh-
ters at Chawton Cottage, 170
London, Miss Austen at inn in
Cork Street, 206 ; " Mr. Gray "
the jeweller in Sackville Street,
207 ; Bartlett's Buildings, Hol-
born, 208 ; Sloane Street and
Hans Place, "rural suburb of
London," 208-10, 212-13
Lower Rooms, Bath, balls given
at, "Mr. King" M.C., Rooms
burnt down in 1820, last gala
held in them, 1 13-17
Lyford, Dr., anecdote of, 63
Lyford, John, at assembly ball,
57 ; at " Harwood's ball," 68
Lyme Regis, Miss Austen's visit
to, house in which she stayed,
134-6; "Captain Harville's
house," old steps on Cobb, 139-
! 77
Index
40 ; ball at Assembly Rooms,
142-4; "Royal Lion," Mary
Russell Mitford at Lyme in
1795, Mary Anning's cottage,
145-7
" Mansfield Park," its composi-
tion in 1813, 192-4 ; published
early in 1814, first edition sold
out during same year, 216-17
Manydown Park, 56, 60-1
Mitford, Mary Russell, born
twelve years later than Jane
Austen, both approached their
art in same spirit, 23-5 ; at
school in Hans Place (successor
of Reading Abbey school), 38-9;
at Bath, 106 ; describes neigh-
bourhood of Hans Place, 208-9,
212-13, 220
Nash, Beau, "King of Bath,"
his laws, 98, 113-14; Lower
Rooms founded by him, 114
" Northanger Abbey," composed
1798, 88; sold to Bath pub-
lisher, bought back again by
author, 132; published in 1818,
261
Oakley Hall, 73
Orde, Mr. William, 55
Paragon, Bath, Mr. Leigh Perrot"s
house (No. 1), 96
Perrot, Mr. Leigh, lives in Para-
gon, Bath, visit from his sister,
Mrs. Austen, and her daughter
Jane, 94, 96
"Persuasion," author writing it,
229-30 ; re-writes final chapters
(1816), 250-1
Piozzi, Mrs. (formerly Mrs.
Thrale), at a ball in Lower
Rooms, Bath, 114; at Octagon
Chapel, 120
Portal, William, of Laverstoke
House, belongs to French Pro-
testant family, ancestor estab-
lishes paper mill at Laverstoke,
65-6
Portal, John, of Freefolk Priory,
56, 65-6
Portsmouth, Lord, family of, at
Assembly balls, 56
" Pride and Prejudice," begun
October 1796, finished August
1797, offered to Mr. Cadell, is
declined, 86-8; published early
in 1818, 189-91, 216
Regent, Prince (afterwards
George IV.), requests Miss
Austen to dedicate " Emma" to
him, 218-19
" Sackree," children's nurse at
Godmersham Park, her grave in
Godmersham churchyard, 101-2
St. Quintin, Monsieur and
Madame, succeed Madame La-
tournelle as owners of the
Reading Abbey school, re-
moves school to Hans Place,
London, 38
Saye and Sele, Lady, at Stoneleigh
Abbey, 166, 167-8
" Sense and Sensibility," begun
in 1797, 88 ; published in 181 1,
title-page of first edition and
"announcement" in Edinburgh
Review, 184-7
Southampton, the Austens' house
in Castle Square, 149-5 1 '• Miss
Austen at ball in the Assembly
Rooms, 152-3; the "Beach,"
"Cross House," Itchen ferry,
157-8
: 7 8
Index
Steventon Parsonage, site of, 7;
fall of trees in grounds of, 11-
12; its garden, 14; interior of
house described, the " dressing-
room." 30-1 ; its sitting-room,
40-42
Steventon Church, 17
Steventon Manor House (old),
occupied by Digweed family, 18
Stoneleigh Abbey, historical asso-
ciations, 161-3; visit of Miss
Austen and her mother, 163-7
Street, Mr., 57
Temple, Mr., 55
Terry, Stephen, at Assembly balls,
56 ; belongs to family of Terrys
of Dummer, 62
Upper Rooms, Bath, Miss Austen
at a ball there, 108-12
Valpy, Dr., headmaster of Read-
ing Grammar School, 36
White, Gilbert, still living during
Jane Austen's girlhood, 25
Whitefield, George, at Dummer,
63
Williams, Captain (afterwards Sir
Thomas), marries Miss Austen's
cousin Jane Cooper, commands
Unicorn frigate in action with
La Tribune, 42-3
Wither, Mr. Bigg, of Manydown
Park, 56. 61
Winchester, Miss Austen's re-
moval to, in May 1817, her
lodgings in College Street,
253-4 » Der death, July 18,
1817, her burial in the Cathe-
dral, 257
Wood, Mr., 55
jJ&titiHti ■ J. j
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
PR Hill, Constance
4036 Jane Austen
H5
UC
+
