[138] Nearly all Memoir, p. 68; the remainder unpublished.
[140] Sailor Brothers, p. 127.
[141] Mr. Oscar Fay Adams, a most careful investigator, failed to discover the inscription in Walcot Church to the memory of George Austen. It is in the crypt below the church, and runs as follows: 'Under this stone rest the remains of the Rev. George Austen, Rector of Steventon and Dean in Hampshire, who departed this life the 21st of January 1805, aged 73 years.'
[142] Sailor Brothers, p. 125.
[143] A gentleman and lady lately engaged to be married.
[144] Memoir, p. 74.
[145] It seems that Charles Austen, then first lieutenant of the Endymion, had had an opportunity of showing attention and kindness to some of Lord Leven's family.
[146] George (Hatton) was afterwards Earl of Winchilsea; Daniel was Rector of Great Weldon and Chaplain to Queen Victoria.
[147] Henry's banking premises were then in Albany, Piccadilly.
[148] At Ushant, after the chase of Villeneuve.
[149] The cricket dinner seems to have come at the end of the play, as it did in the celebrated match played at a somewhat later date in the same county between All-Muggleton and Dingley Dell (Pickwick Papers, chapter vii.).
[150] A letter from Mrs. Austen is extant, dated 'April 1806, Trim Street still.' Most writers state that the Austens went to Southampton towards the end of 1805—a year too early.
[151] Jane afterwards asked Frank's leave to introduce the names of some of his ships (one of which was the Canopus) into Mansfield Park.
[152] This order is said to have been given to each squadron in succession; and it is evident that the ships of Admiral Louis's squadron were especially likely to be in need of supplies, as they had taken their part in Nelson's chase of Villeneuve.
[153] Sailor Brothers, chaps. ix, x, and xi.
[156] Probably Joseph Hill—the frequent correspondent of the poet Cowper.
[157] Miss Mary Leigh left her property—in so far as she had any right to do so—in trust for (a) the Rev. Thomas Leigh; (b) James Leigh Perrot; (c) William Henry Leigh.
[158] Not to be confused with his uncle, Thomas Leigh, Rector of Harpsden and father of Mrs. Austen.
[161] Unfortunately, Jane appears to date her letters merely 'Southampton,' until she moved to Castle Square.
[162] Alphonsine, by Madame de Genlis; The Female Quixote, published 1752, by Mrs. Charlotte Lennox, author of the phrase: 'A thought strikes me: let us swear an eternal friendship.'
[163] Miss Hill supplies us with the line from The Task, 'The Winter Walk at Noon,' ll. 149-50:—
| 'Laburnum rich |
| In streaming gold; syringa, ivory pure.' |
[164] The Austens were about to become Lord Lansdowne's tenants in Castle Square.
[165] Johnson to Boswell, July 4, 1774.—Birkbeck Hill's Boswell, ii. 279.
[166] Mr. John Austen of Broadford, under whose will the property at Horsmonden came into the possession of the family of 'Uncle Frank' on the failure of his own direct heirs. See Chapter I.
[167] Letters from the Mountains: being the real Correspondence of a Lady, between 1773 and 1807, by Mrs. Grant of Laggan.
[168] Probably An Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy, etc. London, 1768-9.
[169] Memoir, p. 77.
[170] Ibid. p. 140.
[171] Brabourne, vol. ii. p. 116.
[172] The Henry Austens were then living at 16 Michael's Place, Brompton—a row of houses on the site of the present Egerton Mansions.
[173] James having arrived by the coach before the others.
[174] Son and daughter of James.
[175] Mr. W. Fowle speaks of a visit to Steventon, when Jane read 'very sweetly' the first canto of Marmion. By that time she was no doubt a warm admirer of the poem.
[176] Brabourne, vol. ii. p. 1.
[177] Southey's Letters from England, by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella (London, 1807); a lively account of this country, written in the guise of letters assigned to a fictitious Spanish traveller.
[178] Lord Lansdowne, who put off being cured too long: his death occurred about the time when he had proposed to go abroad.
[179] See Chapter XIX.
[180] Henry Austen and John Bridges.
[181] William Stanley Goddard, D.D., Head Master of Winchester, 1796-1809.
[182] The Rector of Godmersham.
[183] Anglicised form of French word for cup-and-ball—bilboquet.
[184] As to the move to Chawton.
[185] Richard Mant, D.D., Rector of All Saints, Southampton, and father of Bishop Mant.
[186] She probably wrote noonshine, a somewhat incorrect way of spelling nuncheon (luncheon). See Sense and Sensibility, c. xliv.
[188] His approaching marriage to Harriet Foote.
[189] Frank.
[190] The Rector of Chawton, who was a bachelor.
[191] Mr. and Mrs. Leigh Perrot.
[192] In 1806, the small living of Hampstead Marshall became vacant by the death of old Mr. Fowle; and Lord Craven, the patron, looking round for an 'honest man' who would hold the living for his nominee, offered it to James Austen. He, however, felt scruples, grounded on the wording of the bond of resignation, and declined the preferment.
[193] Her second marriage to General H. T. Montresor.
[194] A joking suggestion that Sir Brook Bridges was about to propose to Cassandra.
[195] Sir John Moore's heroic twelve days' retreat to Corunna was now in progress, and the battle was fought there on January 16. It is mentioned again in the next two letters. The news on this occasion seems to have come very quickly. The St. Albans (under the command of Francis Austen) was at Spithead, and there took charge of the disembarkation of the remains of Sir John Moore's forces (Sailor Brothers, p. 203).
[196] Margiana; or Widdrington Tower, anon. 5 vols. 1808. For a description of this romance see a reply by M. H. Dodds in Notes and Queries, 11 S. vii. pp. 233-4.
[197] Women, or Ida of Athens, by Sydney Owenson (afterwards Lady Morgan), published in 1809.
[198] The Wild Irish Girl, published in 1806.
[199] Mrs. Charles Austen, whose daughter Cassandra was born on December 22, 1808.
[200] Eldest daughter of Jane's brother Edward.
[201] This proved to be Hannah More's Cœlebs in Search of a Wife, published in 1808. See next letter.
[202] Messrs. Crosby & Co. of Stationers' Hall Court, London.
[203] Mr. Austin Dobson, in his introduction to Northanger Abbey (Macmillan, 1897), makes the mistake of saying that the 'advertisement' of the first edition of 1818 tells us that the MS. was disposed of to 'a Bath bookseller.'
[204] Memoir, p. 129.
[205] This implies that (if Susan and Northanger Abbey were the same) no arrangement was concluded in 1809. Indeed, it does not appear that the author contemplated a re-purchase at that time; and the publisher was unwilling to relinquish his rights on any other terms.
[206] Later writers have not even been content to accept the 'publisher in Bath,' but have found a name and habitation for him. Mr. Peach, in his Historic Houses in Bath, published in 1883 (p. 150 note), says: 'The publisher (who purchased Northanger Abbey), we believe, was Bull.' Mr. Oscar Fay Adams, writing in 1891 (Story of Jane Austen's Life, p. 93), becomes more definite in his statement that 'nothing of hers (Jane Austen's) had yet been published; for although Bull, a publisher in Old Bond Street [sc. in Bath], had purchased in 1802 [sic] the manuscript of Northanger Abbey for the sum of ten pounds, it was lying untouched—and possibly unread—among his papers, at the epoch of her leaving Bath.'
It is true that Mr. Dobson, unable to find the authority for Bull's name, is a little more guarded, when he amusingly writes, in 1897:—
'Even at this distance of time, the genuine devotee of Jane Austen must be conscious of a futile but irresistible desire to "feel the bumps" of that Bœotian bookseller of Bath, who, having bought the manuscript of Northanger Abbey for the base price of ten pounds, refrained from putting it before the world. . . . Only two suppositions are possible: one, that Mr. Bull of the Circulating Library at Bath (if Mr. Bull it were) was constitutionally insensible to the charms of that master-spell which Mrs. Slipslop calls "ironing"; the other, that he was an impenitent and irreclaimable adherent of the author of The Mysteries of Udolpho.'
Mr. Meehan, in his Famous Houses of Bath and District (1901), is the most circumstantial of all, writing on p. 197:—
'Her novel Northanger Abbey, which is full of Bath, was finished in 1798, and in 1803 she sold the manuscript for ten pounds to Lewis Bull, a bookseller in the "Lower Walks" (now "Terrace Walk"). Bull had in 1785 succeeded James Leake, and he in turn was succeeded by John Upham. Bull was the founder of the well-known library in Bond Street, London—for many years known as Bull's Library.
[207] Memoir, p. 80.
[208] Ibid. p. 196.
[210] We are told in the biographical notice prefixed to Bentley's edition of the novels in 1833, that though Jane, when her authorship was an open secret, was once asked by a stranger to join a literary party at which Madame de Staël would be present, she immediately declined the invitation.
[211] Memoir, p. 89.
[212] She had experienced a similar shock before in the sudden death, by accident, of her cousin, Jane Williams.
[213] This judgment is based on the idea that Elinor and Marianne (admittedly earlier than First Impressions) bore something of the same relation to Sense and Sensibility that First Impressions did to Pride and Prejudice.
[214] Jane Austen and her Country-house Comedy, by W. H. Helm.
[215] Her cousin, Mary Cooke.
[216] This may have been Bullock's Natural History Museum, at 22 Piccadilly. See Notes and Queries, 11 S.v. 514.
[217] In Pall Mall.
[218] Theophilus Cooke.
[220] White Friars, Canterbury—the residence of Mrs. Knight.
[221] He took command of the Elephant on July 18, 1811, and became again concerned in the Napoleonic Wars. Sailor Brothers p. 226.
[222] The original of this letter is in the British Museum.
[223] Sense and Sensibility. We do not know whether the Incomes were ever altered.
[224] Mr. Hampson, like Mr. Walter, must have been related to Jane through her grandmother (Rebecca Hampson), who married first, Dr. Walter; secondly, William Austen. Mr. Hampson succeeded to a baronetcy, but was too much of a republican to use the title.
[225] Jane and her niece Fanny seem to have invented a language of their own—the chief point of which was to use a 'p' wherever possible. Thus the piece of music alluded to was 'Strike the harp in praise of Bragela.'
[226] We learn from a letter of Cassandra that he arrived in time to spend (with his family) a week at Chawton Cottage. He had been absent almost seven years. It was their first sight of his wife.
[227] The Comte d'Antraigues and his wife were both of them notable people. He had been elected deputy for the noblesse to the States-General in 1789, and had taken at first the popular side; but as time went on he became estranged from Mirabeau, and was among the earliest to emigrate in 1790. For the rest of his life he was engaged in plotting to restore the Bourbons. His wife had been the celebrated Madame St. Hubert of the Paris opera-house, and was the only woman ever known to have inspired Bonaparte to break forth into verse. Both the Count and Countess were murdered by their valet at Barnes, July 22, 1812. (Un agent secret sous la Révolution et l'Empire: Le Comte d'Antraigues, par Léonce Pingaud. Paris, 1894.)
[228] A novel by Mrs. Brunton, published in 1810.
[229] We can give no explanation of the cousinship, if any existed, of Miss Beckford; Miss Payne may have descended from a sister of Jane's grandmother, Rebecca Austen, who married a man of that name.
[230] Perhaps in the battle of Albuera, May 16, 1811, which is described by Professor Oman (Cambridge Modern History, ix. 467) as 'the most bloody incident of the whole Peninsular War.'
[231] June 2. They ought to have waited for the King's birthday (June 4), which was considered the correct day to begin pease upon.
[232] The publisher was a Mr. T. Egerton, described as of the Military Library, Whitehall. He was therefore not the same as Henry Egerton who called in Sloane St. (p. 247) pace Mr. Austin Dobson in his Introduction to Sense and Sensibility (Macmillan, 1896).
[234] We shall in future describe Jane's brother Edward as 'Mr. Knight,' and his children as 'Knight' with the Christian name prefixed; while the name 'Edward Austen' will be reserved for the author of the Memoir (James's eldest son), as he was always known in the family by that name.
[235] Memoir, p. 11.
[236] Cassandra was now staying at Steventon; these letters to her are mainly in the Memoir, but are supplemented and re-arranged from family MSS.
[237] Authors of the Rejected Addresses (1812).
[238] Mansfield Park, chapter xxiv.
[239] Mansfield Park, chapter xxv.
[240] Mansfield Park was also published at 18s., Emma at £1 1s., whereas the first edition of Sense and Sensibility had cost only 15s.
[241] I.e. typographical.
| 'I do not rhyme to that dull elf |
| Who cannot image to himself.'—Marmion, vi. 38. |
[243] In Mansfield Park (the scene of which is laid in Northamptonshire), a good deal turns on the steadfast determination of Edmund Bertram to be ordained.
[244] The caution observed at Steventon in preserving the secret of the authorship of the novels is shown in a little manuscript poem addressed by young Edward Austen to his aunt, when (at the age of fifteen or sixteen) he was at last informed that the two novels, which he already knew well, were by her.
[245] This passage occurs at the end of chapter liv. For a long time the publishers tried to put matters right by making three sentences into one. Mr. Brimley Johnson's was the first edition to break up the sentences properly. See Appendix, p. 409-10.
[246] Memoir, p. 104.
[247] Afterwards, Lady Pollen, of Redenham, near Andover, and then at a school in London.
[248] Layton and Shears, a millinery establishment at 9 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.
[249] After the death of his wife, Henry Austen moved into chambers over his bank, 10 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden.
[250] This letter is full of allusions to Pride and Prejudice.
[251] Two of Henry Austen's clerks.
[252] Mr. Tilson was a partner of Henry Austen.
[253] Miss Darcy.
[254] Sailor Brothers, p. 233. One paragraph in this letter (respecting the marriage of Mr. Blackall) is quoted in Chapter VI.
[256] Pride and Prejudice was sold outright to Mr. Egerton; and this implies that the sum given was £110.
[257] 'Pengird' in Brabourne, but surely a misprint. Cf. Brabourne, ii. pp. 199, 266. Mme. Perigord and Mme. Bigeon were two of Eliza's French servants who stayed on with Henry until he moved to Hans Place.
[258] Lady Robert Kerr, whom Henry met in Scotland, and to whom he divulged the secret of his sister's authorship.
[259] Lizzie and Marianne Knight.
[260] Part of his duties as Receiver of Oxfordshire.
[261] These sisters were daughters of the Master of Balliol; and Mrs. Leigh was married to her first cousin, the Rev. Thomas Leigh, who succeeded to Stoneleigh. (See Leigh pedigree.)
[262] Madame d'Arblay to Dr. Burney, June 18, 1795.
[263] The keeper at Chawton.
[264] The Rector of Godmersham.
[265] The Wanderer.
[266] Sailor Brothers, p. 243.
[267] To be allowed to use the names of some of his ships in Mansfield Park.
[268] The old nurse at Godmersham.
[269] Stephen Rumbold Lushington, M.P. for Rye, 1807-12, and for Canterbury, 1812-30, and 1835-37; Privy Councillor; Governor of Madras.